WOMEN AND EQUALITIES

Same-sex Civil Marriages

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what assessment she has made of the potential effect of European human rights legislation on any UK legislation on same-sex civil marriages.

Lynne Featherstone: If a couple love each other and want to commit to a life together, we believe that they should have the option of getting married. That is why we have consulted on enabling same-sex couples to have a civil marriage ceremony.
	As would be expected, we continue to consider all relevant court judgments, including those from Europe. This is alongside our consideration of the responses we have received to the consultation—and I am grateful to everyone who sent in their views. We will be publishing the Government's response by the end of the year.

Children: Day Care

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what recent discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues on the importance of childcare for women.

Lynne Featherstone: I have regular discussions with my ministerial colleagues on a range of issues, including child care.
	Last week, the Prime Minister launched a commission on child care to look at how to reduce the costs to working families and the burdens on child care providers.
	This commission, which will report in the autumn, will draw widely on expertise and evidence from within this country and abroad.

Human Trafficking Ministerial Group

Peter Bone: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities how many times she has attended the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Human Trafficking in the last 18 months.

Lynne Featherstone: The Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Women and Equalities, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), has not attended.

PRIME MINISTER

Members: Correspondence

John Baron: To ask the Prime Minister when he plans to respond to the (a) letter of 30 March 2012 and (b) email of 16 May 2012 from the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay regarding a constituent Mr M. Allison.

David Cameron: A reply has been sent.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Families: Disadvantaged

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many troubled families co-ordinators there are.

Bob Neill: On 11 June 2012 we announced that all 152 upper tier local authorities in England have agreed to run the Troubled Families programme in their area. In signing up to the programme, authorities have committed to appoint a Troubled Families Co-ordinator to run the programme locally and inform it nationally. So far 116 local authorities have confirmed that a Troubled Families Co-ordinator has been appointed in their area. Other authorities have a named lead officer who has been driving work on the programme locally while they proceed with recruitment of a co-ordinator.

Planning Permission

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in which areas the Planning Inspectorate plans to issue model policies for adoption in local plans.

Bob Neill: National planning policy is the responsibility of the Department for Communities and Local Government. Paragraph 15 of the National Planning Policy Framework states that local plans should be based upon and reflect the presumption in favour of sustainable development, with clear policies that will guide how the presumption should be applied locally. It creates an expectation that all plans subject to examination should reflect the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
	The Planning Inspectorate has published model wording to assist local authorities in their plan making to reflect the presumption in favour of sustainable development and so meet the expectation in the framework. The Planning Inspectorate considers that the model wording, if incorporated into a draft local plan submitted for examination, is an appropriate way of meeting this expectation alongside any other aspects of a plan that may need to reflect the approach of the presumption:
	http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/planning/planningsystem/localplans#Presume
	The Planning Inspectorate does not have any plans to issue other model wording.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

Arts

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport how much funding for (a) the arts, (b) heritage, (c) active leisure and (d) museums his Department allocated to (i) England, (ii) the west midlands and (iii) each local authority area in the west midlands from 2010 to 2012.

Edward Vaizey: The Department provides grant-in-aid funding to public bodies that help deliver our strategic aims and objectives for the arts, heritage, community sport and museums. The grant in aid allocated to these bodies can be found in the Department's annual reports, and in funding allocation letters, which can be found at the following links:
	http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/Annual_ Report_and_Accounts_2010_11.pdf
	and
	http://www.culture.gov.uk/publications/9020.aspx
	Arts Council England has provided details of arts and museum funding distributed in England and the west midlands. Museum funding data are not recorded by local authority area.
	
		
			 Arts funding 
			  2010-11 2011-12 
			 (i) England 401,849,829 392,691,133 
			    
			  2010-11 2011-12 
			 (ii) West midlands 45,157,638 44,359,071 
			    
			 (iii) West midlands local authority areas   
			 Birmingham 22,055,423 21,053,661 
			 Bromsgrove 18,593 12,635 
			 Coventry 1,899,926 1,970,029 
			 Dudley 67,462 122,952 
			 East Staffordshire 14,000 0 
			 Herefordshire, County of 593,161 459,140 
			 Lichfield 72,635 59,251 
			 Malvern Hills 81,970 107,550 
			 Newcastle-under-Lyme 1,082,029 1,008,500 
			 North Warwickshire 0 0 
			 Nuneaton and Bedworth 7,665 0 
			 Redditch 0 8,819 
			 Rugby 1,000 95,885 
			 Sand well 457,278 439,577 
			 Shropshire 716,343 776,573 
			 Solihull 11,302 150,157 
			 South Staffordshire 0 0 
			 Stafford 113,800 77,385 
			 Staffordshire Moorlands 0 0 
		
	
	
		
			 Stoke-on-Trent 363,210 206,278 
			 Stratford-on-Avon 15,362,633 14,977,995 
			 Tamworth 0 44,500 
			 Telford and Wrekin 14,500 158,196 
			 Walsall 945,543 931,694 
			 Warwick 405,310 649,423 
			 Wolverhampton 389,912 536,281 
			 Worcester 357353 403,636 
			 Wychavon 121,372 108,954 
			 Wyre Forest 5,218 0 
		
	
	
		
			 Renaissance Museum Programme funding 
			 £ million 
			  2010-11 2011-12 
			 (i) England 43 37.6 
			 (ii) West midlands 4.6 4.1 
		
	
	We do not hold data for funding allocated to ‘active leisure’; however, Sport England allocates Exchequer funding to community sport. Full details of the funds awarded by region and local authority, from 2010 to 2012, can be found at the following link:
	http://www.sportengland.org/funding/local_spending_data.aspx
	English Heritage has provided a breakdown of grant offers they have made in England and the west midlands. These figures are not broken down by local authority area.
	
		
			 £ million 
			  West midlands(1) England 
			 2010-11 3.706 24.373 
			 2011-12 2.835 23.729 
			 (1)Amounts exclude offers made under the English Heritage National Heritage Protection Commissions Programme.

e-mail

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport how many e-mails he received to his official government email address in each month since May 2010.

John Penrose: The number of e-mails received by the Secretary of State’s three official Government addresses is set out in the following table:
	
		
			  Secretary of State's Office Jeremy Hunt—Office Jeremy Hunt—Diary Total 
			 May 2010 859 29 150 1,038 
			 June 2010 1,723 71 974 2,768 
			 July 2010 1,754 20 592 2,366 
			 August 2010 784 21 295 1,100 
			 September 2010 1,045 19 637 1,701 
			 October 2010 1,096 16 559 1,671 
			 November 2010 1,135 21 878 2,034 
			 December 2010 735 12 463 1,210 
			 January 2011 931 42 1335 2,308 
			 February 2011 888 49 1056 1,993 
			 March 2011 1,296 85 975 2,356 
			 April 2011 556 34 559 1,149 
		
	
	
		
			 May 2011 775 17 594 1,386 
			 June 2011 1,006 21 546 1,573 
			 July 2011 1,907 32 480 2,419 
			 August 2011 747 27 387 1,161 
			 September 2011 930 46 3,262 4,238 
			 October 2011 1,016 60 1,366 2,442 
			 November 2011 1,221 58 1,174 2,453 
			 December 2011 849 57 303 1,209 
			 January 2012 806 380 239 1,425 
			 February 2012 936 410 163 1,509 
			 March 2012 1,066 517 203 1,786 
			 April 2012 806 446 233 1,485 
			 May 2012 864 574 149 1,587 
			 Total 25,731 3,064 17,572 46,367

Flags: British Overseas Territories

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport for what reasons the flags of British Overseas Territories were not displayed in Parliament Square and Horse Guards Parade during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the Trooping of the Colour.

John Penrose: We had hoped to be able to fly the flags of the Overseas Territories (OT) at this summer's ceremonial events, but the first manufacturers of the bespoke ceremonial flagpoles and flags delivered products which were unusable, or which required specialist repair before they could be used. The repairs and replacements are currently being undertaken and we expect to be able to fly the OT flags at future ceremonial events.

Mental Health

John Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to promote good mental health and well-being in his Department.

John Penrose: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has guidance for staff on managing and supporting mental health in the workplace, as well as an Employee Assistance Programme provider offering confidential advice on a range of health and other issues. In addition, the Department held a ‘Well-being at Work’ week earlier this year, which included a presentation from the Civil Service Benevolent Fund (now the Charity for the Civil Service) focusing on raising awareness of mental health issues in the workplace.

Departmental Mobile Phones

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what the (a) make, (b) model and (c) network provider was of each mobile telephone device he has been officially issued with in chronological order since May 2010.

John Penrose: Since May 2010, the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), has been officially issued with one mobile phone device, a Blackberry 8250, which is both data and phone enabled. The network provider for this mobile phone device is O2, which is the network provider for all departmental mobile devices.

Departmental Mobile Phones

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport how many (a) telephone calls and (b) text messages he received to mobile telephone devices officially issued to him in each month since May 2010.

John Penrose: The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), has been officially issued with a BlackBerry that is both data and phone enabled, but, in line with most phone bills, the Department does not hold a record of calls and text messages received.

4G Spectrum

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport when he expects the 4G spectrum auction to be held; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: This is a matter for Ofcom, the independent regulator. Ofcom remain on schedule for the UK auction process to start by the end of 2012. This is compatible with the spectrum becoming available to allow successful bidders to start rolling out 4G services in these bands in 2013.

4G Spectrum

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport when Ofcom expects to determine the application it has received for re-use of existing 2G spectrum for 4G services; and what timetable the European Commission has set for such decisions.

Edward Vaizey: This is a matter for Ofcom, the independent regulator. Ofcom's consultation closed on 8 May 2012 and the responses raised a number of detailed issues that Ofcom is considering. Ofcom is working to reach a decision on these matters as soon as it reasonably can. The EU Radio Spectrum Policy Programme decision requires member states to carry out the authorisation process (for, among others, liberalisation of the 1,800 MHz spectrum) by 31 December 2012 without prejudice to the existing deployment of services, and under conditions that allow consumers easy access to wireless broadband services. However, this does not mean that the authorisation process must result in the 1,800 MHz spectrum being made available for 4G use by the end of 2012.

Press Officers

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport how much has been claimed in reimbursable expenses by press officers in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) its arm’s-length bodies since May 2010.

John Penrose: Reimbursed expenses paid to press officers by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport between May 2010 and the end of May 2012 were £617.70. These payments were made in connection with travel and subsistence costs, but we are unable to analyse in more detail without incurring disproportionate costs.
	The Department's agency (The Royal Parks Agency) has paid £117.42 in reimbursable expenses to its press officers since May 2010.
	The Department does not hold this information for its arm’s length bodies. Accordingly, I have asked their chief executives to write directly to the hon. Member with this information.
	A copy of the letters will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Rebekah Brooks

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport from how many different telephone numbers he has received text messages from Rebekah Brooks since May 2010. [R]

Jeremy Hunt: All available relevant text messages on my phone were submitted as part of my evidence to the Leveson inquiry. There were no text messages from Rebekah Brooks within this evidence.

Regulation

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what regulations his Department introduced between 1 February and 31 May 2012; and at what cost to the public purse.

John Penrose: The following statutory instruments sponsored by the Department have been made between 1 February 2012 and 31 May 2012:
	The Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 (Directions to OFCOM) Order 2012
	The Local Digital Television Programme Services Order 2012
	The Gambling (Operating Licence and Single-Machine Permit Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2012
	The Royal Parks and Other Open Spaces (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2012
	The Safety of Sports Grounds (Designation) Order 2012
	The Digital Economy Act 2010 (Appointed Day No.2) Order 2012
	The Public Lending Right Scheme 1982 (Commencement of Variations) Order 2012
	The cost to the Department in making these statutory instruments essentially consists of staff time, but is not measured in the way the hon. Gentleman requests.

TREASURY

EU Customs Information System

Dominic Raab: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has (a) made of and (b) published on the effectiveness of the EU Customs Information System.

David Gauke: The UK has not carried out or published its own assessment of the effectiveness of the Customs Information System.

EU Customs Information System

Dominic Raab: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) people and (b) UK nationals have had their data added to the EU Customs Information System by the UK authorities in each of the last five years; and on how many occasions the UK has been found liable for damage caused to a person through the use of the Customs Information System pursuant to Article 8(2) of EU Council Decision 2009/917/JHA in the last year for which figures are available.

David Gauke: HMRC has not entered any data on (a) people or (b) UK nationals to the Customs Information System database as operated under EU Council Decision 2009/917/JHA over the last five years. There have been no occasions when the UK has been liable for damage caused to a person through the use of the Customs Information System.

Finance Act 2008

Mike Freer: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how much revenue HM Revenue and Customs estimates will be raised in 2012-13 due to the provision of section 58 of the Finance Act 2008;
	(2)  what effect he estimates the bankruptcy of individuals required to pay tax retrospectively under section 58 of the Finance Act 2008 will have on HM Revenue and Customs revenues.

David Gauke: UK residents are taxable on their worldwide income wherever it arises, including situations where it arises by way of foreign partnerships. Section 58 of Finance Act 2008 was enacted to help put that beyond doubt and in so doing, made clear that a wholly artificial tax avoidance scheme involving a foreign partnership comprised of foreign trustees did not work. The total tax at stake in respect of this scheme is estimated to be £230 million.

Gift Aid

Steve Brine: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will undertake an assessment of the level of public awareness of Gift Aid declaration forms.

Chloe Smith: The public awareness of Gift Aid, and of tax relief for charitable giving, have been the subject of research studies published by HMRC, including:
	‘Charitable Giving by Wealthy People’, April 2007
	‘Gift Aid donor research: Exploring options for reforming higher-rate relief’, December 2009
	‘Key Barriers to the Adoptions of Gift Aid’, March 2008
	All of these studies are available online at:
	www.hmrc.gov.uk/research

Gift Aid

Steve Brine: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the amount of funding that charities are unable to reclaim in Gift Aid due to the requirements relating to individual declaration forms.

Chloe Smith: No estimate is available because HMRC does not collect information on all of the donations where charities cannot claim Gift Aid.

Infrastructure

Angus MacNeil: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress his Department has made on securing public and private investments for the funding of the projects in the National Infrastructure Plan 2011, by project; and what the (a) funding source, (b) funding amount secured, (c) total funding amount required and (d) potential Barnett consequential to be paid to Scotland is for each such project.

Danny Alexander: The National Infrastructure Plan 2011 identified a substantial pipeline of planned investment in UK infrastructure over the next decade and beyond. The infrastructure pipeline includes over 500 projects and programmes worth over £250 billion. Almost two thirds of the expected investment to 2015 will be privately funded and the remainder will be either partially or fully publicly funded. The Barnett formula will be applied in the usual way to public funding.
	At the autumn statement 2011 the Government announced £6.3 billion of capital spending and since the 2010 spending review the UK Government has provided more than £700 million of additional capital funding to the Scottish Government for it to spend according to its own priorities.

Members: Correspondence

John Baron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he plans to respond to the (a) letter of 28 April 2012 and (b) email of 14 May 2012 from the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay regarding a constituent Ms Burchell.

David Gauke: I have replied to my hon. Friend.

Publications

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what (a) publications and (b) consultation documents have been issued by his Department since May 2010.

Chloe Smith: All Treasury publications are available on the Treasury website:
	www.hm-treasury.gov.uk
	and can be accessed from the website relevant section.
	A full list of consultations is available online at:
	www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/consult_fullindex.htm

VAT

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to Table 6 of Annex B—Table of Impact for Individual Measures of the HM Revenue and Customs consultation document, “VAT: Addressing borderline anomalies”, published in the 2012 Budget, what financial support and relief he is making available to those businesses and charities which own listed buildings which are not listed places of worship and who will be required to pay VAT on alterations to their buildings that may be affected each year.

David Gauke: The vast majority of businesses with listed buildings already pay VAT on any approved alterations and so are unaffected by this measure.
	In relation to charities, I refer my hon. Friend to my response of 18 June 2012, Official Report, column 728W.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Agricultural Wages Board

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she plans to publish the impact assessment in respect of the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board.

James Paice: An impact assessment in respect of abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board will be published as part of the necessary legislative process, the timing of which is still to be determined.

Gangmasters Licensing Authority

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
	(1)  when she plans that her consultation on the future of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority will begin;
	(2)  pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 24 May 2012, Official Report, column 83WS, on Gangmasters Licensing Authority (Red Tape Challenge), when she proposes that the changes to the Gangmasters Licensing Authority will be implemented; and what (a) impact assessment she undertook and (b) discussions she had with (i) the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, (ii) trades unions, (iii) farming representatives and (iv) gangmaster representatives before the announcement.

James Paice: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given in response to questions he asked on 21 June 2012, Official Report, column 1120W.
	In respect of issues not covered in the earlier answer, changes to the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) will be implemented over the next 12 months subject to the outcome of public consultation. The GLA was considered under the Red Tape Challenge's Employment Theme led by Ministers at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills who were closely involved in deliberations. The Red Tape Challenge invited evidence on the future of the GLA from all interested parties, who will also be able to contribute to public consultation on our detailed proposals.

Livestock: Transport

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
	(1)  what recent discussions she has had with (a) the EU Commission and (b) her EU ministerial counterparts on the rules surrounding the transport of livestock;
	(2)  what recent discussions she had with (a) the European Commission and (b) her EU counterparts on the rules on the transport of livestock.

James Paice: I have met informally with Commissioner Dalli to discuss, among other issues, the subject of the Commission's report on the impact of the welfare in transport legislation. In addition, DEFRA officials have also played a full part in the Council working party (involving all member states) responsible for drawing up the draft Council conclusions on the transport report, which were agreed at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on 21 June.
	At this meeting, I introduced a note for the minutes of the meeting which made it clear that while the UK Government could agree with the EU Commission that enforcement of the existing legislation should be the number one priority, we were, nevertheless, disappointed that the Commission was not adopting the European Food Safety Authority's recommendation to reduce the maximum journey time for horses going to slaughter to 12 hours. I also underlined our concern that more should be done to protect infant livestock, such as calves, during long journeys.

JUSTICE

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much bad debt was written off by his Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Kenneth Clarke: The amount written off by the Department for 2010-11 is contained within the published annual report and accounts:
	http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/corporate-reports/MoJ/moj-annual-report-accounts-2010-11.pdf
	The Department's 2011-12 year-end position is not yet finalised. The annual report and accounts, due to be published in July 2012, will contain details of the amounts written off during 2011-12.

Early Guilty Plea Scheme

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the answer of 30 April 2012, Official Report, column 1156W, on the early guilty plea scheme, what additional credits will be applied to sentences which are handed down after a defendant has pleaded guilty under the scheme; and what assessment he has made of the likely effect on the size of the prison population.

Kenneth Clarke: The early guilty plea scheme is an initiative of the Senior Presiding Judge aimed at identifying earlier, and dealing more swiftly with, those cases where a defendant is likely to plead guilty.
	There is no additional credit given to defendants pleading guilty under the scheme. Any sentence credit offered for an early plea is in line with current sentencing guidance. In view of this, no assessment of its effects on the size of the prison population was undertaken.

Employment Tribunals Service

Ian Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many employment tribunals were on matters related to holiday pay in each year since 2007.

Jonathan Djanogly: The Ministry of Justice publishes Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) work load statistics annually and quarterly. Those statistics include data on employment tribunal claims receipts (i.e. the volume of actions brought by individual claimants) and a further break down of jurisdictional complaints receipts (i.e. the component causes of action, by jurisdictional type, brought under the claims submitted) each quarter and each financial year.
	Under legislation to implement the working time directive, employment tribunals have jurisdiction to hear complaints from a worker that their employer has failed to allow them to take (or to pay them for) statutory annual leave entitlement. Complaints under this jurisdiction are often referred to as ‘holiday pay' claims.
	A significant proportion of the holiday pay (and total) complaints received since 2007 has come from claims resubmitted approximately on a quarterly basis by a cohort of individual claimants as part of an ongoing collective dispute in the airline industry. These employment tribunal complaints (managed together as ‘multiples' at the London South Employment Tribunal Office) are currently stayed, pending the outcome of appellate proceedings before the Supreme Court.
	The following table shows the total number of complaints received under the holiday pay jurisdiction for each complete financial year since 2006-07.
	
		
			 Claims and complaints received by employment tribunals in financial years since 2006-07 
			  2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 Total claims receipts 132,600 189,300 151,000 236,100 218,100 186,300 
			 Total jurisdictional complaints 238,500 297,000 266,500 392,800 382,400 321,800 
			 Holiday pay complaints receipts* 14,900 53,300 21,800 92,300 111,700 94,700 
			 Note: Figures for 2006-07 are management information. Source: HMCTS Annual Statistics, published by the Ministry of Justice (*Data on holiday pay complaints are drawn from the HMCTS employment tribunal database, which is the source of all associated official statistics).

Prison Officers

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prison officers failed their fitness tests by age group in the last five years.

Crispin Blunt: The number of prison officers who failed the fitness test from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2012 is shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Age group Number of failures 
			 20-30 16 
			 31-40 24 
			 41-50 43 
			 51-60 11 
			 61+ 2 
			 Total 96

Prison Officers

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the age profile is of prison officers across the prison estate.

Crispin Blunt: Information on the age profile of prison officers and prison custody officers on the latest available date, split into 10-year bands, is contained in the following table. The information covers both public and private sector Prison Service establishments in England and Wales.
	
		
			 Prison officers/prison custody officers in Prison Service of England and Wales—As at 30 April 2012 
			 Age group Headcount Percentage of total 
			 <20 6 0 
			 20-29 3,039 14 
			 30-39 5,049 23 
			 40-49 8,219 37 
			 50-59 4,880 22 
			 >60 901 4 
			 Total 22,074

Procurement

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many contracts issued by his Department were awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises in 2011-12; what proportion that figure represents of all contracts let; and what the monetary value was of such contracts.

Kenneth Clarke: The number of contracts awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises in 2011-12 by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ); what proportion that figure represents of all contracts let; and what the monetary value was of such contracts is as shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Period No of contracts awarded to SMEs Proportion of SME contracts represented as a proportion of all contracts let (%) Monetary value of contracts awarded to SMEs (£) 
			 l April 2011 to 31 March 2012 512 67 501,993,891.00

Reoffenders

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many offenders released on licence following a life sentence have committed (a) murder and (b) other offences in each of the last five years.

Crispin Blunt: Comprehensive data on offenders' further offending who have been released on licence following a life sentence in each of the last five years are not held centrally in a readily accessible electronic format. To obtain these data would exceed cost limits.
	The following table provides data on the number of convictions for murder in the last five years where the individual convicted of murder was on life licence.
	
		
			 Convictions for murder where individual convicted was on life sentence 
			  Number 
			 2007 0 
			 2008 1 
			 2009 3 
			 2010 1 
			 2011 2 
		
	
	There are data from published proven reoffending statistics for England and Wales for life sentenced prisoners. These statistics are published on a quarterly basis and the latest bulletin, which was published on 26 April 2012 on the Ministry of Justice website, is at the following address:
	http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/reoffending/proven-re-offending
	These data show that of the 84 life sentenced prisoners released from prison in the 12 months ending June 2010 three of them reoffended in a 12 month follow up period.
	The breakdown of the re-offences for these three reoffenders were:
	Burglary (household)
	Drug offences
	Summary motoring offences

Squatting

Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  whether he plans to bring forward proposals to extend the provisions relating to squatting in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 to all commercial premises;
	(2)  if he will consider bringing forward proposals to create an offence of intentional trespass for vehicles in national parks;
	(3)  when he plans that the provisions relating to squatting in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 will be brought into force;
	(4)  whether he has issued guidance to police forces on the enforcement of the provisions relating to squatting in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

Crispin Blunt: We are aiming to commence section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (offence of squatting in a residential building) later this year. We are working with the Home Office and the police to develop guidance on enforcing the offence. We have no plans to extend the provision to non-residential buildings or land at this stage, but will keep the situation under review.

Young Offenders

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) male and (b) female offenders aged 10 to 18 years entered custody with a substance misuse problem in each year since 2005.

Crispin Blunt: The information required to answer the question is not readily available. The Youth Justice Board is currently collating the data it holds on substance misuse and the custodial population and I will write to the hon. Member when it is available. A copy of that letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Electricity: Meters

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will estimate any consequential cost of the early roll-out of smart meters resulting from (a) suppliers running additional systems to communicate with early meters, (b) the replacement and upgrade of existing smart meters and (c) consumers not being able to switch suppliers because they have an early smart meter.

Charles Hendry: DECC published two updated smart meter impact assessments in April 2012. The impact assessments consider the potential for higher costs in early roll-out stages and reflect these through the addition of cost allowances. The impact assessments also take account of the potential benefits from earlier deployments, such as providing consumers the early opportunity to receive smart meters and save energy, as well as pre-empting unnecessary stranding of assets where existing meters need replacement. Overall, the impact assessments estimate that net present value is not likely to vary significantly with different volumes of early installations.

Electricity: Meters

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment his Department has made of the potential effects of installation failures on the overall cost of the smart meter roll-out.

Charles Hendry: DECC published two updated smart meter impact assessments (IAs) in April 2012. The IAs estimate that, on average, the cost of a dual fuel installation will be £69 per premise. This estimate accounts for those instances where a number of visits will be required before a successful installation is achieved.

Energy: Prices

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the number of consumers switching energy providers following the launch of his Department's Check, Switch, Insulate and Save campaign.

Charles Hendry: Ofgem is responsible for collecting data on switching.
	The average number of customers who switched from one supplier to another during each quarter of 2011 (latest data to be published) is shown in the following table:
	
		
			 2011 Electricity Gas 
			 Quarter 1 331,000 266,000 
			 Quarter 2 370,000 271,000 
			 Quarter 3 396,000 318,000 
			 Quarter 4 305,000 235,000 
		
	
	The Check, Switch and Insulate to Save campaign was launched in October 2011, but between July and December 2011 five of the large energy suppliers suspended their doorstep sales activities, which is likely to have had a significant negative impact on switching levels.

Green Deal Scheme

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost to small and medium-sized enterprises of the legal advice that will be necessary to comply with the Green Deal Arrangements Agreement.

Gregory Barker: We do not have estimates but have sought to minimise the potential cost to small and medium-sized enterprises of any legal advice that may be necessary to comply with the Green Deal Arrangements Agreement (GDAA) by keeping the GDAA as concise and clear as possible. The length of the current draft of the GDAA, at 96 pages, compares favourably with the length of other industry codes such as the Master Registration Agreement (234 pages), the Balancing and Settlement Code (859 pages) or the Distribution Connection and Use of System Agreement (474 pages).

Green Deal Scheme

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change when he plans to publish his proposals for the Green Deal Launch cash-back scheme.

Gregory Barker: We expect to provide further details on the Green Deal cash-back scheme in September.

Procurement

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many contracts issued by his Department were awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises in 2011-12; what proportion that figure represents of all contracts let; and what the monetary value was of such contracts.

Gregory Barker: The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) does not hold complete information on the number of contracts awarded to small and medium sized entities in 2011-12. The amount of expenditure incurred with small and medium-sized entities in 2011-12 and the total level of procurement spend by the Department and its non-departmental public bodies will be published before the summer recess in DECC's departmental accounts. This information is available on a quarterly basis in DECC's Quarterly Data Summaries, which can be found at the following link:
	http://www.decc.gov.uk/EN/searchresults.aspx?q=qds
	A number of actions are in train to improve the identification of contracts and expenditure with small and medium-sized entities, including the use of a spend analysis tool developed by the Government Procurement Service (Bravo Solutions). This tool links departmental spend to suppliers with Dunn and Bradstreet data to identify small and medium-sized enterprises.

Publications

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many publications his Department has issued since May 2010; and what the title was of each (a) publication and (b) consultation document issued by his Department since May 2010.

Gregory Barker: Since May 2010, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has issued 765 publications. A list of publication and related consultation titles will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Antisocial Behaviour

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals following the publication of her Department's White Paper entitled, “Putting Victims First: More Effective Responses to Anti-Social Behaviour”.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 26 June 2012
	We will set out plans to bring forward legislation on more effective powers to tackle antisocial behaviour, including plans for pre-legislative scrutiny, in due course.

Asylum: EU Countries

Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers were transferred to another EU member state under the Dublin Regulation in each year since that regulation came into force; and if she will make a statement.

Damian Green: The information requested is shown in the following table:
	
		
			  Transferred from UK(1) 
			 2003 1,377 
			 2004 1,904 
			 2005 1,924 
			 2006 1,663 
			 2007 1,157 
			 2008 1,246 
			 2009 1,005 
			 2010 1,162 
			 2011 1,013 
			 (1) This figure represents all transfers under the Dublin Regulation, as such it includes people who have not claimed asylum in the UK, however these applicants would have claimed asylum in another member state. The figures are based on management information data that are not quality assured under National Statistics protocols. The figures do not constitute part of National Statistics and should be treated as provisional.

Community Safety Accreditation Schemes

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  what plans she has to introduce greater transparency and accountability to the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme;
	(2)  how her Department is monitoring the use of (a) fixed penalty notices and (b) penalty notices for disorder by accredited organisations under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme; and whether police forces should be monitoring these data.

Nick Herbert: The Home Office is working with forces to increase transparency at a local level by ensuring information about use of the scheme is available and accessible. The introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners in November will provide another level of local accountability and ownership, ensuring that these localised partnerships continue to reflect and respond to local concerns and community safety issues.
	It is for chief officers in each force to agree management and monitoring arrangements of the use of fixed penalty notices and penalty notices for disorder issued under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme.
	Guidance is provided by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Databases: Telecommunications

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when her Department's Communications Capabilities Development Programme was established; and how many of the staff involved in that programme previously worked on the (a) Interception Modernisation Programme and (b) Mastering the Internet Programme.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 19 June 2012
	The Communications Capabilities Development Programme was established in April 2011. 60% of the current programme staff also worked on the Interception Modernisation Programme.
	Mastering The Internet is part of GCHQ's corporate technical investment programme and is designed to help GCHQ to keep pace with developments in internet-base communications technology in support of its intelligence and security mission.
	GCHQ does not comment on numbers of staff involved in its operations.

Databases: Telecommunications

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what circumstances the authorities of other countries would be able to request access to data stored under the proposed Communications Capabilities Development Programme; and if she will publish a list of the countries which would be entitled to request such access.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 26 June 2012
	Any country is able to request assistance from the Secretary of State for the Home Department in obtaining evidence located within the UK, including communications data. Such requests are considered under the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003.
	Public authorities in the United Kingdom can also receive direct requests for assistance in obtaining communications data from their counterparts in other countries. On receipt of such requests the United Kingdom public authority may consider seeking the acquisition and disclosure of the requested data under the provisions of the chapter II part I of the Regulations of Investigatory 2000. The United Kingdom public authority must be satisfied that the request complies with United Kingdom human rights legislation.

Demonstrations

Louise Mensch: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance her Department has issued to police forces on the enforcement of section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 in each of the last 12 months.

Nick Herbert: The Home Office has issued no guidance to police officers on the enforcement of section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 in the last 12 months.

Demonstrations

Louise Mensch: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests were made in each police authority area under section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 in each of the last 12 months.

Nick Herbert: The information requested is not available centrally. The Home Office's arrests database cannot separately identify arrests made under section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001.

Detention Centres: Pregnant Women

Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is her policy that pregnant women are always allowed to keep their hand-held maternity records (maternity notes) when they enter immigration detention.

Damian Green: Pregnant women who have been issued with hand-held records or a medical book while in the community are permitted to retain these on entering immigration detention. While detained, such records are maintained by the immigration removal centre's healthcare department to ensure continuity of care.

Essex Police Authority

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations she has received from (a) members of the public and (b) hon. Members on Essex Police Authority; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: None, except those from the hon. Member himself.

Illegal Immigrants: Frontex

Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many illegal migrants travelling to the UK have been intercepted by Frontex in each year since it was established; and if she will make a statement.

Damian Green: The role of Frontex is to support the border management authorities of states through the coordination of operational activities. There is no distinction made between the numbers of migrants intercepted by officials of the host state as opposed to those intercepted by guest officers from other states taking part in a Frontex-coordinated operation. Undocumented migrants may be questioned about the route they have taken, facilitators used and their ultimate destination. Information gathered remains the property of the state hosting the Frontex operation and it is therefore not possible to estimate how many of those intercepted would have travelled to the UK.

Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Ministry of Defence Police have worked at (a) Heathrow, (b) Gatwick, (c) Manchester, (d) Liverpool, (e) Doncaster, (f) Glasgow, (g) Newcastle, (h) Southend, (i) Bristol, (j) Stansted, (k) Southampton, (l) Leeds/Bradford, (m) Luton, (n) Edinburgh, (o) East Midlands, (p) Birmingham and (q) Bournemouth airport since May 2010.

Damian Green: holding answer 25 June 2012
	To ensure the integrity and security of the UK border, Her Majesty's Government cannot provide details of the number of staff deployed at specific ports or at specific times.
	For the total number of Ministry of Defence Police deployed, I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given on 18 June 2012, Official Report, column 653W.

Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many Ministry of Defence Police have been seconded to work for the UK Border Agency (a) in each (i) week and (ii) month and (b) in total since May 2010;
	(2)  how many Ministry of Defence Police have been seconded to work for the UK Border Force (a) in each (i) week and (ii) month and (b) in total since May 2010.

Damian Green: holding answer 25 June 2012
	To ensure the integrity and security of the UK border, Her Majesty's Government cannot provide details of the number of staff deployed at specific ports or at specific times.
	For the total number of Ministry of Defence Police deployed, I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given on 18 June 2012, Official Report, column 653W.

Passports

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of people have a UK passport.

Damian Green: The number of British citizens currently holding a valid passport issued in the United Kingdom is estimated at 48.5 million. This equates to 77% of the population.

Regional Pay

Stephen Gilbert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department has taken to introduce regional pay since 20 March 2012; and if she will make a statement.

Damian Green: I refer my hon. Friend to the debate on regional pay on 20 June 2012, Official Report, columns 937-86.

Police

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the physical capacity of a person aged 60 to carry out the job of a police officer.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 25 June 2012
	The Winsor Review concluded that an average person should be able to pass the recommended fitness test until their sixties. The Government is now carefully considering these recommendations.

Police and Crime Commissioners

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what budget she has set for advertising (a) elections to the posts of Police and Crime Commissioner and (b) details of the method of election for police and crime commissioners.

Nick Herbert: £3 million has been set aside for raising awareness about the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in November.
	The Home Office will not spend anything on the methods of election for PCCs. The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act gives the Electoral Commission a statutory duty to raise awareness of these elections, including how to vote in them, as it currently does for all UK elections. The Home Office is working closely with the Commission on this but does not fund this activity.

Police: Complaints

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many complaints were recorded against the police service in (a) Essex, (b) Southend and (c) England and Wales in each of the last 10 years; what the rate of complaints per 1,000 of population was in each such year; and if she will make a statement;
	(2)  what complaints against Essex police authority have been upheld in each year since 2010; what (a) response was made and (b) steps were taken by Essex police authority to implement such recommendations; and if she will make a statement;
	(3)  what written (a) advice and (b) guidance (i) her Department and (ii) Essex police authority provides to members of the public wishing to make a complaint about Essex police authority; if she will place in the Library a copy of each such document; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: Since 2004 the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has been responsible for the annual publication of statistics relating to complaints against the police service in England and Wales and these reports are available on the IPCC website. Information on complaints against Essex police authority is not held by the Home Office and is a matter for Essex police authority. Guidance and advice on how to complain about Essex police authority is also a matter for Essex police authority.

Police: Health

Tracey Crouch: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what legal advice she has received regarding the dismissal of police officers with a physical disability after failing to complete the annual fitness test, as proposed in Tom Winsor's Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions.

Nick Herbert: Tom Winsor's recommendation for the introduction of annual fitness tests for officers has been referred to the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales for consideration. The Home Secretary will give careful consideration to the advice offered by the board on this matter and to the relevant duties under the Equality Act 2010 before taking any final decision.

Police: Health

Tracey Crouch: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what advice she has received regarding the potential effects of the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 on proposals to introduce an annual fitness test for police officers.

Nick Herbert: The recommendation on fitness testing is included in the policy equality statement in Tom Winsor's Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions—Final Report, published on 15 March. In the report Tom Winsor states that, in his view, the test is justifiable because it is job related and does not have a detrimental effect on people on the grounds of age or sex.
	This recommendation has been referred to the police negotiating machinery for consideration.
	The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), will consider carefully the potential equality impact of any recommendations around annual fitness tests for officers in line with her legal responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty of the Equality Act 2010.

Police: Information and Communications Technology

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) capital and (b) resource cost of establishing the police ICT company has been since 2010.

Nick Herbert: The costs associated with establishing the Police ICT Company are being examined. The company will be delivered within existing, reducing, funding allocations and projected costs will be subject to official scrutiny through a full business case.

Police: Pay

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she expects the annual pay freeze for police officers to be lifted.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 21 June 2012
	Police officers' pay was increased on 1 September 2010, when the Government honoured the final increase of the three-year pay deal agreed in 2008. The Government's policy is to freeze the pay of public sector workers earning over £21,000 for two years. We expect this to apply to police officers, subject to any recommendations from the Police Negotiating Board.

Police: Pensions

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent progress she has made on police pension reform; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 21 June 2012
	The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), wrote to the Police Negotiating Board on 27 March 2012 to consult on a proposal for the long-term reform of police officer pensions. Both sides were asked to consider the proposal and respond by 22 June 2012 and we are now considering those responses.

Police: Training

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers from England and Wales have trained at the European Police College in each year since 2006; and what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of such training in each such year.

Nick Herbert: The figures for police officers from England and Wales trained at the European Police College are as follows:
	
		
			  Number 
			 2006 72 
			 2007 101 
			 2008 105 
			 2009 100 
			 2010 83 
			 2011 63 
			 2012 38 
		
	
	We cannot provide figures in relation to estimated cost to the public as these data are not held centrally.

Police: Vehicles

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of operational police vehicles which are fitted with satellite navigation systems provided by the relevant police authority; what proportion this represents of the total operational fleet; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Herbert: This information is not held centrally.

Prisoners: Repatriation

Nadine Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department is taking to work with the European Court of Human Rights to develop the criteria by which verifiable guarantees from foreign countries that potential deportees will not be tortured are accepted.

James Brokenshire: The European Court of Human Rights has made clear in its judgment in the case of Othman (Abu Qatada) v. UK that it is not for the Court to rule upon the propriety of seeking assurances nor for them to assess the long-term consequences of doing so. Their only task is to examine whether the assurances are sufficient to remove any real risk of ill-treatment. In doing so, the Court set out in that judgment a list of factors it will have regard to. We are therefore continuing to work with foreign partners, such as Jordan, to ensure that adequate assurances are provided.

Publications

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what publications have been issued by her Department since May 2010.

Damian Green: The following lists the printed publications produced by the Home Office and its agencies during the financial years 2010-11 and 2011-12, and April to May 2012.
	Teenage abuse and rape prevention campaigns (leaflets, business cards etc)—Amends
	Annual Border Controls Report
	Home Office printed publications April to May 2012
	Section 182 Statutory Guidance
	Authority To Carry Scheme—document, annexes, web PDF’s etc.
	Code of Practice (NI) Stop and Search Powers
	IPCC—corruption in police
	Police and Criminal Evidence Acts—Codes C, G and H
	DBS—leaflets.

DEFENCE

Armed Forces

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress his Department has made in developing its policy on Future Force 2020; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Harvey: Progress towards Future Force 2020 is being made according to the goals set out in the 2010 strategic defence and security review and the subsequent announcement of 18 July 2011, Official Report, column 643, by the then Secretary of State for Defence, the right hon. Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox).
	As the Secretary of State for Defence, the right hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), said in his statement of 14 May 2012, Official Report, column 261, bringing the Defence budget into balance is a major milestone on the path to Future Force 2020. The House will be updated on further progress as appropriate.

Armed Forces: Recruitment

Thomas Docherty: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many members of each branch of HM Armed Forces were recruited in each of the constituent parts of the UK in the latest period for which figures are available.

Andrew Robathan: The tables provide the figures from FY 2011-12 detailing the number of entrants from recruitment centres in each of the constituent parts of the UK. However, this does not provide a comprehensive picture of where these individuals originate from geographically, as they may not always apply to join the services through their nearest career office or may choose other means by which to apply.
	Figures given do not give a representative picture of actual recruitment performance for specific trades such as infantry.
	In the tables the following abbreviations are used:
	AFCO—Armed Forces Careers Office
	ACIO—Army Career Information Office
	CIO—Career Information Office
	OCLC—Officer Career Liaison Office
	ACA—Army Careers Adviser
	
		
			 1. Naval Officer Entrants FY 2011-12 
			  Number 
			 Admiralty Interview Board 82 
			 AFCO Cardiff (RN) 1 
			 AFCO Exeter (RN) 1 
			 AFCO London (RN) 1 
			 AFCO Portsmouth (RN) 1 
			 CIO Taunton(RN and RM) 2 
			 Naval Recruiting 11 
			 OCLC Birmingham 27 
			 OCLC London 71 
			 OCLC Manchester 37 
			 OCLC Northern Ireland 3 
			 OCLC Peterborough 52 
			 OCLC Plymouth 43 
			 RN and RM Careers Southampton 4 
			 Sub Region Greater London and South East 1 
			 Sub Region Scotland 21 
			 Sub Region Wales and West Central 2 
		
	
	
		
			 2. Naval Other Rank Entrants FY 2011-12 
			  Number 
			 ACIO Derby (RN) 27 
			 AFCO Aberdeen (RN) 14 
			 AFCO Belfast (RN) 36 
			 AFCO Birmingham (RN) 52 
			 AFCO Bournemouth (RN) 60 
			 AFCO Brighton (RN) 36 
			 AFCO Bristol (RN) 35 
			 AFCO Cambridge (RN) 17 
			 AFCO Cardiff (RN) 40 
			 AFCO Carlisle (RN) 30 
			 AFCO Chatham (RN) 28 
		
	
	
		
			 AFCO Coventry (RN) 13 
			 AFCO Dundee (RN) 25 
			 AFCO Edinburgh (RN) 27 
			 AFCO Exeter (RN) 46 
			 AFCO Glasgow (RN) 54 
			 AFCO Gloucester (RN) 51 
			 AFCO Hull (RN) 50 
			 AFCO Inverness (RN) 14 
			 AFCO Ipswich 27 
			 AFCO Leeds (RN) 75 
			 AFCO Leicester (RN) 18 
			 AFCO Lincoln (RN) 36 
			 AFCO Liverpool (RN) 103 
			 AFCO London (RN) 63 
			 AFCO Luton (RN) 36 
			 AFCO Manchester (RN) 78 
			 AFCO Middlesbrough (RN) 46 
			 AFCO Newcastle (RN) 61 
			 AFCO Norwich (RN) 24 
			 AFCO Nottingham (RN) 28 
			 AFCO Oxford (RN) 19 
			 AFCO Peterborough (RN) 23 
			 AFCO Plymouth (RN) 79 
			 AFCO Portsmouth (RN) 84 
			 AFCO Preston (RN) 55 
			 AFCO Reading (RN) 26 
			 AFCO Redruth (RN) 28 
			 AFCO Sheffield (RN) 31 
			 AFCO Shrewsbury (RN) 33 
			 AFCO Stoke (RN) 22 
			 AFCO Swansea (RN) 40 
			 AFCO Wrexham (RN) 14 
			 CIO Canterbury 18 
			 CIO Chelmsford 30 
			 CIO Darlington 33 
			 CIO Dunfermline 15 
			 CIO Guildford 35 
			 CIO Taunton(RN and RM) 35 
			 CIO Wolverhampton 11 
			 RN and RM Careers Office Ilford 11 
			 RN and RM Careers Southampton 33 
			 Royal Navy St Helens 26 
		
	
	
		
			 3. Army Officer Entrants FY 2011-12 
			 AFCO and UOTC Number 
			 Leeds UOTC 19 
			 Manchester and Salford UOTC 1 
			 Northumbrian UOTC 11 
			 Sheffield UOTC 6 
			 ACA 1—Wessex 15 
			 ACA 1—West Midlands 2 
			 ACA 1—Wales (North) 13 
			 ACA 1—Wales (South) 9 
		
	
	
		
			 4. Army Other Rank Entrants FY 2011-12 
			 AFCO and ACIO Number 
			 AFCO Belfast 282 
			 AFCO Birmingham 339 
			 AFCO Bournemouth 164 
			 AFCO Brighton 250 
			 AFCO Bristol 108 
			 AFCO Cambridge 262 
		
	
	
		
			 AFCO Cardiff 306 
			 AFCO Carlisle 148 
			 AFCO Chatham 191 
			 AFCO Dundee 183 
			 AFCO Edinburgh 221 
			 AFCO Exeter 186 
			 AFCO Glasgow 542 
			 AFCO Gloucester 77 
			 AFCO Hull 313 
			 AFCO Inverness 116 
			 AFCO Leeds 508 
			 AFCO Leicester 275 
			 AFCO Lincoln 243 
			 AFCO Liverpool 493 
			 AFCO London 549 
			 AFCO Manchester 602 
			 AFCO Middlesbrough 335 
			 AFCO Newcastle 291 
			 AFCO Norwich 195 
			 AFCO Nottingham 457 
			 AFCO Peterborough 78 
			 AFCO Plymouth 123 
			 AFCO Portsmouth 272 
			 AFCO Preston 450 
			 AFCO Reading 193 
			 AFCO Redruth 34 
			 AFCO Sheffield 298 
			 AFCO Shrewsbury 257 
			 AFCO Southend-on-Sea 176 
			 AFCO Stoke-on-Trent 447 
			 AFCO Swansea 183 
			 AFCO Wrexham 240 
			 ACIO Aberdeen 39 
			 ACIO Abergavenny 28 
			 ACIO Aldershot 80 
			 ACIO Ashington 55 
			 ACIO Bangor 73 
			 ACIO Barnsley 79 
			 ACIO Barnstaple 31 
			 ACIO Barrow-in-Furness 39 
			 ACIO Bath 32 
			 ACIO Bathgate 35 
			 ACIO Birkenhead 69 
			 ACIO Bishop Auckland 26 
			 ACIO Blackburn 70 
			 ACIO Blackpool 134 
			 ACIO Bolton 117 
			 ACIO Boston 39 
			 ACIO Bradford 123 
			 ACIO Bridgend 29 
			 ACIO Bromley 80 
			 ACIO Burnley 85 
			 ACIO Burton-on-Trent 108 
			 ACIO Canterbury 32 
			 ACIO Carmarthen 33 
			 ACIO Catterick 42 
			 ACIO Chelmsford 46 
			 ACIO Chester 70 
			 ACIO Chesterfield 77 
			 ACIO Chichester 45 
			 ACIO Coleraine 43 
			 ACIO Coventry 131 
		
	
	
		
			 ACIO Croydon 94 
			 ACIO Darlington 87 
			 ACIO Derby 100 
			 ACIO Doncaster 102 
			 ACIO Dover 54 
			 ACIO Dumbarton 34 
			 ACIO Dumfries 42 
			 ACIO Dunfermline 46 
			 ACIO Durham 61 
			 ACIO Enniskillen 75 
			 ACIO Galashiels 29 
			 ACIO Grimsby 83 
			 ACIO Halifax 58 
			 ACIO Hamilton 112 
			 ACIO Haverfordwest 34 
			 ACIO Hereford 75 
			 ACIO Huddersfield 75 
			 ACIO Ilford 92 
			 ACIO Ipswich 73 
			 ACIO Irvine 102 
			 ACIO Kirkcaldy 41 
			 ACIO Lancaster 63 
			 ACIO Luton 97 
			 ACIO Mansfield 113 
			 ACIO Milton Keynes 70 
			 ACIO Newport 90 
			 ACIO Newport (IOW) 3 
			 ACIO Northampton 152 
			 ACIO Oldham 79 
			 ACIO Oxford 44 
			 ACIO Paisley 81 
			 ACIO Perth 25 
			 ACIO Pontypridd 73 
			 ACIO Portadown 59 
			 ACIO Rhyl 72 
			 ACIO Salisbury 71 
			 ACIO Scarborough 65 
			 ACIO Southampton 65 
			 ACIO South Shields 51 
			 ACIO Stirling 84 
			 ACIO Stockport 85 
			 ACIO Sunderland 68 
			 ACIO Swindon 29 
			 ACIO Taunton 49 
			 ACIO Torquay 36 
			 ACIO Tunbridge Wells 16 
			 ACIO Victoria 79 
			 ACIO Wakefield 97 
			 ACIO Warrington 93 
			 ACIO Wembley 60 
			 ACIO Wigan 88 
			 ACIO Wolverhampton 164 
			 ACIO Worcester 92 
			 ACIO Workington 35 
			 ACIO York 97 
		
	
	
		
			 5. RAF Entrants FY 2011-12 
			 Recruiting Location Number 
			 AFCO Hull (RAF) 37 
			 AFCO Leeds (RAF) 55 
			 AFCO Liverpool (RAF) 78 
			 AFCO Manchester (RAF) 42 
			 AFCO Middlesbrough (RAF) 42 
			 AFCO Newcastle (RAF) 37 
		
	
	
		
			 AFCO Preston (RAF) 67 
			 AFCO Sheffield (RAF) 41 
			 Area N England (AFCO Leeds) 0 
			 SCLO RAF Linton on Ouse 1 
			 AFCO Aberdeen (RAF) 7 
			 AFCO Belfast (RAF) 10 
			 AFCO Carlisle (RAF) 14 
			 AFCO Dundee (RAF) 22 
			 AFCO Edinburgh (RAF) 25 
			 AFCO Glasgow (RAF) 33 
			 AFCO Inverness (RAF) 10 
			 Area Scot and NI (Kentigern House) 0 
			 AFCO Cambridge (RAF) 45 
			 AFCO Leicester (RAF) 25 
			 AFCO Lincoln (RAF) 72 
			 AFCO Luton (RAF) 0 
			 AFCO Norwich (RAF) 50 
			 AFCO Nottingham (RAF) 53 
			 AFCO Peterborough (RAF) 28 
			 Area E Mids and EA (AFCO Nottingham) 4 
			 SCLO RAF Wittering 0 
			 AFCO Brighton (RAF) 20 
			 AFCO Chatham (RAF) 23 
			 AFCO London (RAF) 40 
			 AFCO Oxford (RAF) 33 
			 AFCO Reading (RAF) 0 
			 AFCO Southend (RAF) 10 
			 Area SE (AFCO London) 0 
			 SCLO RAF Halton 3 
			 AFCO Birmingham (RAF) 50 
			 AFCO Cardiff (RAF) 54 
			 AFCO Coventry (RAF) 19 
			 AFCO Gloucester (RAF) 35 
			 AFCO Shrewsbury (RAF) 38 
			 AFCO Stoke (RAF) 22 
			 AFCO Swansea (RAF) 27 
			 AFCO Wrexham (RAF) 24 
			 Area Wales and W Mids (AFCO Gloucester) 0 
			 AFCO Bournemouth (RAF) 27 
			 AFCO Bristol (RAF) 35 
			 AFCO Exeter (RAF) 32 
			 AFCO Plymouth (RAF) 20 
			 AFCO Portsmouth (RAF) 46 
			 AFCO Redruth (RAF) 18 
			 Area SW (AFCO Plymouth) 2 
			 DRIT (RAF) 0 
			 OASC Cranwell 66

Cyprus: Military Bases

James Arbuthnot: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what consideration has been given to any potential consequences for the defence of the sovereign base areas in Cyprus of a disorderly departure by Greece from the eurozone; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Harvey: holding answer 24 May 2012
	The Government is undertaking contingency planning to deal with all possible outcomes in the eurozone.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Child Maintenance

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the powers available to the Child Support Agency to investigate the validity of declared income where income is contested.

Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to my hon. Friend with the information requested and I have seen the response.
	Letter from Noel Shanahan
	In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.
	You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the powers available to the Child Support Agency to investigate the validity of declared income where income is contested.
	Child support legislation provides the Commission with wide powers to obtain information from both parents and third parties for the purpose of making decisions relating to child maintenance including those decisions which relate to establishing the income of a non-resident parent. Where income is paid as wages upon which details are routinely held by employers, by the tax authorities, and others; or where income is paid as benefits upon which details are held by the relevant government departments paying the benefits, we are confident of our ability to establish income effectively in the vast majority of cases, and resolve any dispute quickly.
	Where a non-resident parent can control the form in which they receive their income, through their role in running a business or acting as a company director, establishing income can be more complex and require greater use of investigative powers. There are also often more intractable disputes between parents about what constitutes a true income figure. We are confident in our ability to deal with such cases effectively, but the greater effort required to collect the information in some of these cases means it can take longer to establish the true income figure and ensure the correct amount of maintenance is flowing to the parent with care of the child.
	The legislation relating to the Agency's powers to require information to be provided by certain groups is Section 14, 14A, Schedule 2 of the Child Support Act 1991 and the Child Support (Information) Regulations 2008.
	The number of prosecutions under section 14A(2) of the Child Support Act 1991 relating to the misrepresentation of evidence of income (fraud) has increased steadily since 2008.

Child Maintenance

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps the Child Support Agency takes to verify declared incomes.

Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to my hon. Friend with the information requested and I have seen the response.
	Letter from Noel Shanahan
	In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (“the Commission”).
	You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Child Support Agency takes to verify declared incomes.
	Child support legislation provides the Commission with wide powers to obtain information from both parents and third parties for the purpose of making decisions relating to child maintenance including those decisions which relate to establishing the income of a non-resident parent.
	The legislation relating to the Agency's powers to require information to be provided by certain groups is Section 14, 14A, Schedule 2 of the Child Support Act 1991 and the Child Support (Information) Regulations 2008. The legislation provides that the Agency may require information to be provided from a person that has the information or could be reasonably expected to obtain it.
	For issues relating to establishing the income of a non-resident parent the Child Support Agency's operational guidance indicates that the necessary information should first be sought from the non-resident parent, on whom there is an onus to provide such information and that they should be allowed sufficient time before an employer is contacted. It is a criminal offence for a non-resident parent to refuse to co-operate with, or to provide false information in response to, this request. Once it is clear that a non-resident parent may not be fully co-operating with the Child Support Agency, an employer will be contacted to allow information to be obtained relating to child maintenance decisions. Prosecution of the non-resident parent for failing to provide information will also be considered.
	Should the level of income provided seem inherently improbable as a correct statement of income, or should it be challenged by the parent with care of the child, then additional evidence to verify it may be sought. Child support legislation provides that the following groups - Employers, Companies or partnerships, Accountants, and ‘Deposit Takers' - e.g. banks and building societies - amongst others, are included within those which the Child Support Agency may require information from in relation to the making of decisions relating to child support (this includes requesting verification of a person's income).

Crisis Loans: Scotland

Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what funding he plans to provide to the Scottish Government for crisis loans payments in (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14 and (c) 2014-15.

Steve Webb: Scotland has been allocated £4.5 million in addition to recoveries for crisis loan payments for the year 2012-13.
	The discretionary Social Fund, which includes crisis loans, is being abolished from April 2013. The funding is being passed to the Governments of Scotland and Wales and local authorities in England to provide a better targeted local provision.
	Scotland's share of the programme funding for the new provision from April 2013 is approximately £25 million per annum for 2013-14 and 2014-15.
	Additionally, universal credit will provide a better service of payments on account, supporting many people in need of short and longer term credit facilities.

Disability

Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when his Department expects to publish the cross-Government Disability Strategy.

Maria Miller: We are taking a phased approach to publishing the Disability Strategy. This ensures we can continue to work together with disabled people to develop and deliver an effective and practical strategy which makes a real difference to the lives of disabled people.
	Phase 1: in September we will publish a summary of responses to “Fulfilling Potential”, a summary of decisions already made, actions already planned, and activities already under way. Alongside this, we will outline our next steps based upon the issues and ideas disabled people have told us about. This will include our strategic narrative, the priority areas for further action, specific next steps, and how we will continue to work with disabled people to deliver positive outcomes.
	Phase 2: in the autumn we will publish an analytical document drawing on statistics and research, to explore the nature of disability in the UK today.
	Phase 3: following from these, and continuing to draw on joint working with disabled people, we will publish a further strategic document and action plan in the new year.

Disability: Children

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate has been made of the number of disabled children in (a) the UK and (b) England.

Maria Miller: The estimated number of dependent children with a core disability in
	(a) The UK: 800,000
	(b) England: 700,000
	Figures are rounded to the nearest 100,000.
	Notes:
	1. The Family Resources Survey is a nationally representative sample of approximately 25,000 UK private households. Data for 2010-11, the latest year available, were collected between April 2010 and March 2011.
	2. The figures from the Family Resources Survey are based on a sample of households which have been adjusted for non-response using multi-purpose grossing factors which align the Family Resources Survey to Government office region population by age and sex. Estimates are subject to sampling error and remaining non-response error.
	3. The Family Resources Survey defines a disabled person as having a long-standing illness, disability or impairment which causes substantial difficulty with day-to-day activities. Everyone classified as disabled under this definition would also be classified as disabled under the general definition of disability in the Equality Act (EA) which has applied since 1 October 2010. However, some individuals classified as disabled and having rights under the EA would not be captured by this definition.
	4. A dependent child is defined as an individual aged under 16. A person will also be defined as a child if they are 16 to 19 years old and they are:
	Not married nor in a civil partnership nor living with a partner; and
	Living with parents; and
	In full-time non-advanced education or in unwaged government training.
	Source:
	Family Resources Survey 2010-11

Disability: Children

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether families with disabled children will be involved in evaluating the effects of the early roll-out of universal credit in the Greater Manchester and Cheshire areas.

Maria Miller: New claims from families with disabled children will not be involved in the universal credit pathfinder but if, when on universal credit, a change occurs which brings a disabled child into an assessment unit then these cases will remain part of the pathfinder.

Disability: Children

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what modelling his Department has undertaken in relation to the effect of the introduction of universal credit on families with disabled children; and if he will publish this modelling.

Maria Miller: Section 3.1 of the equality impact assessment shows the impact of universal credit on households with disabled people. The figures include households with one or more disabled people, including children. The equality impact assessment for universal credit was published in November 2011 and is available on the Department's website at:
	www.dwp.gov.uk

Employment Schemes

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Barrow and Furness of 23 January 2012, Official Report, column 1, that he would issue guidance to Work Programme providers on publication of data on their own performance shortly, and with reference to the answer of 19 March 2012, Official Report, column 495W, on employment schemes, that he aimed to issue such guidance by the end of April 2012, when he now plans to publish such guidance; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Grayling: The guidance discussed was intended to set out in more detail how providers could release data through the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), the trade association for the welfare to work industry. However, following an internal review, it was agreed that current guidance was sufficient to allow providers to publish job entry data in this way, and that further formal guidance was not necessary. ERSA released a second tranche of figures on 21 May which can be seen in their press release:
	http://www.ersa.org.uk/hub/details/682

Employment Schemes: West Midlands

Bob Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people from (a) the West Midlands, (b) Coventry and (c) Coventry North East constituency have (i) volunteered and (ii) been required to take part in the Work programme in the last 12 months.

Chris Grayling: The number of Work programme referrals in the West Midlands region, Coventry local authority and Coventry North East parliamentary constituency by referral type, up to and including January 2012, is shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Referral type West Midlands region Coventry local authority Coventry North East parliamentary constituency 
			 Total 64,130 4,240 1,880 
			 Mandatory 62,940 4,160 1,850 
			 Voluntary 1,190 80 30 
			 Source: DWP Information, Governance and Security Directorate (IGS)

Energy

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether his Department has switched its (a) gas or (b) electricity supplier in any of the last 10 years.

Chris Grayling: The Department for Work and Pensions has switched its gas and electricity supplies several times during the last 10 years. Details of these supplier changes are provided in the following table. This information includes the former Department of Social Security and the former Employment Service sites until August 2006.
	
		
			  Half hourly electricity Non-half hourly electricity Gas 
			 DWP (former DSS)    
			 October 2001 to September 2002 Electricity London Electricity Board (LEB) Powergen The Gas Company 
			 October 2002 to September 2003 LEB/Ecotricity Ecotricity/Corona The Gas Company 
			 October 2003 to September 2004 Npower Npower Corona 
			 October 2004 to September 2005 Npower Npower Corona 
			 October 2005 to September 2006 Npower Npower Corona 
			     
			 DWP (former Employment Service)    
			 October 2001 to September 2002 LEB British Gas Corona 
			 October 2002 to September 2003 LEB British Gas Corona 
			 October 2003 to September 2004 LEB British Gas Corona 
			 October 2004 to September 2005 Npower British Gas Corona 
			 October 2005 to July 2006 Npower British Gas Corona 
			     
			 DWP    
			 August 2006 to September 2006 Npower Npower Corona 
		
	
	
		
			 October 2006 to March 2007 Npower Npower Corona 
			 April 2007 to September 2007 Npower Npower Corona 
			 October 2007 to September 2008 Npower Npower Corona 
			 October 2008 to September 2009 Scottish and Southern Electricity (SSE) SSE Total Gas and Power (TGP) 
			 October 2009 to September 2010 SSE SSE TGP 
			 October 2010 to September 2011 SSE SSE TGP 
			 October 2011 to March 2012 SSE SSE TGP 
			 April 2012 to September 2012 EDF BGB Corona

Energy

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which energy supplier supplies his Department with (a) gas and (b) electricity.

Chris Grayling: The Department for Work and Pensions is currently supplied by British Gas Business for non-half hourly electricity and by EDF Energy Ltd for half hourly electricity. Gas is currently supplied by Corona Energy.

Energy

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department has spent on its (a) gas and (b) electricity bills in each of the last 10 years.

Chris Grayling: The following table details the Department's electricity and gas spend since 2002-03:
	
		
			  Gas (£) Electricity (£) 
			 2011-12 6,811,466 21,456,168 
			 2010-11 6,298,006 21,357,861 
			 2009-10 5,848,002 21,144,501 
			 2008-09 7,974,273 19,575,721 
			 2007-08 5,889,050 19,575,721 
			 2006-07 6,967,819 20,164,107 
			 2005-06 7,451,382 17,332,658 
			 2004-05 6,613,954 17,342,660 
			 2003-04 4,932,292 15,075,730 
			 2002-03 2,792,914 7,186,477

Government Procurement Card

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many procurement card holders in his Department were (a) paid off-payroll, (b) employed on a part-time basis and (c) employed as a non-permanent employee in (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11 and (iii) 2011-12.

Chris Grayling: Government procurement cards (GPC) are held by staff across the DWP to make low value purchases. Currently there are 615 DWP staff who hold a GPC.
	In line with Cabinet Office guidelines, the DWP have taken action over recent years to reduce the number of GPC holders. There has been a number of changes on the number of staff holding a GPC due to staff joining/leaving the Department and those whose roles have changed. An initial check has identified 3,830 GPC holders over the last three years.
	Information on GPC holders is held on the SDOL (Secure Data On-Line) database provided by the GPC supplier. This database does not hold any personal information on staff such as working pattern or status. Therefore this information would need to be cross-checked against staff records in order to provide the requested information. HR has confirmed that as the information requested is not collated centrally it could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	All the 615 GPC holders are DWP staff who are paid via payroll. In 2009 there were a small number of GPC holders who were contractors. These would have been staff who were employed on the Office Services contract who had moved to the contractor under TUPE arrangements when work was outsourced. During 2009-10 the DWP revised its policy on GPC holders and all GPCs were removed from non-DWP staff. Therefore during 2010-11 and 2011-12 there have been no non-DWP GPC holders.

Government Procurement Card

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on which dates his Department has published Government procurement card spending over £500 since May 2010.

Chris Grayling: In line with Cabinet Office guidance, the dates for the publication of GPC transactions over £500 for the Department for Work and Pensions are as follows:
	
		
			 Data Published by 
			 April 2011 to June 2011 30 September 2011 
			 July 2011 to August 2011 31 October 2011 
			 September 2011 30 November 2011 
			 October 2011 30 December 2011 
			 November 2011 31 January 2012 
			 December 2011 29 February 2012 
			 January 2012 30 March 2012 
			 April 2009 to March 2011 30 March 2012 
			 February 2012 30 April 2012 
			 March 2012 31 May 2012

Housing Benefit

David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who would be subject to the under-occupancy penalty if single parents with equal custody rights each rely on housing benefit.

Steve Webb: Housing benefit only takes account of a child in a claim from the parent with the main responsibility for that child's care. Where care is shared equally the main responsibility normally follows the person who receives child benefit for that child. Any claimant who is not deemed to have main responsibility for a child will not have that child considered for under-occupancy purposes. This is consistent with the treatment of those living in the private rented sector.

Housing Benefit

David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he proposes that the role of carers will be recognised when an under-occupancy penalty is applied to housing benefit claimants.

Steve Webb: A bedroom will be allowed in the assessment of occupancy for a carer living in the household and for a carer who provides necessary overnight care to the claimant or their partner, as is already the case for private tenants.
	As part of the under-occupation measure we have added £30 million to the discretionary housing payment fund, £25 million of which is aimed at supporting disabled claimants living in adapted properties.

Housing Benefit: East Lothian

Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate he has made of the number of under-25-year-olds in receipt of housing benefit in East Lothian constituency.

Steve Webb: Information is not readily available for housing benefit recipients aged under 25 at parliamentary constituency level, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
	A one-off exercise was carried out on the January 2011 data to provide a parliamentary constituency breakdown. This exercise consisted of validating postcodes and partial postcodes, using them to allocate cases to the appropriate parliamentary constituency using the revised Office for National Statistics coding system, then resolving cases with missing or invalid postcodes. The results were published on the Department's website at:
	http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/hb_ctb_parlc_jan11.xls

Housing Benefit: Offenders

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of (a) people managed under level 1 multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) housing allowance, (b) people formerly managed under level 2 or level 3 MAPPA and (c) category 1 MAPPA offenders who will receive the shared accommodation rate of local housing allowance; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Webb: No estimate has been made.

Industrial Health and Safety: Legionnaires’ Disease

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to improve enforcement of health and safety controls for legionnaires’ disease.

Chris Grayling: Last year, HSE's Legionella Committee asked the Health and Safety Laboratory to review recent legionella outbreaks and identify any recurring causes or trends in order to inform future interventions. That work is almost complete and the committee will consider it at their next meeting on 28 June, when they will determine what further action is required to help ensure that companies meet their legal obligations to control and manage the risks in relation to legionella.
	Many premises with the potential for legionella risks are regulated by local authorities and HSE will continue to work closely with them in developing and delivering future interventions.

Jobseeker's Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of jobseeker's allowance claimants returned to work within (a) 13, (b) 26 and (c) 52 weeks in each Jobcentre Plus district in the latest period for which figures are available.

Chris Grayling: The information requested is not available.

Pay

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) highest, (b) median, (c) median full-time equivalent and (d) lowest full-time equivalent salary paid by (i) his Department and (ii) its public bodies was in (A) 2010-11, (B) 2011-12 and (C) 2012-13.

Chris Grayling: The Department for Work and Pensions has 14 public bodies, four of which are advisory bodies and do not employ staff; therefore they have not been included in this table showing the salary figures. All figures relate to base salary only unless otherwise stated in the notes of the table.
	
		
			 £ 
			   2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 
			 Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)(1) Highest 227,500.00 227,500.00 n/a 
			  Median 18,245.00 18,710.00 n/a 
			  Median FTE 20,970.00 21,540.00 n/a 
			  Lowest FTE 14,000.00 14,400.00 n/a 
			      
			 Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC)(2) Highest 210,000.000-215,000.000 140,000.00-145,000.00 n/a 
			  Median 16,725.00 17,188.00 n/a 
		
	
	
		
			  Median FTE 17,885.00 18.425.00 n/a 
			  Lowest FTE 13,480.00 14,400.00 n/a 
			      
			 Health and Safety Executive (HSE)(3) Highest 208,875.28 201,021.58 201,021.58 
			  Median 34,199.00 35,633.00 35,633.00 
			  Median FTE 35,633.00 37,158.89 37,158.89 
			  Lowest FTE 16,603.00 16,853.00 16,853.00 
			      
			 National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) Highest 230,000.00 230,000.00 n/a 
			  Median 60,000.00 54,000.00 n/a 
			  Median FTE 60,000.00 54,000.00 n/a 
			  Lowest FTE 20,150.00 20,150.00 n/a 
			      
			 The Pension Advisory Service (TPAS) Highest 92,500.00 92,500.00 92,500.00 
			  Median 38,000.00 37,500.00 37,500.00 
			  Median FTE 38,000.00 37,500.00 37,500.00 
			  Lowest FTE 21,250.00 21,500.00 21,500.00 
			      
			 Independent Living Fund (ILF)(4) Highest 104,000.00 91,500.00 91,500.00 
			  Median 19,246.00 20,378.00 20,596.00 
			  Median FTE 20,346.00 20,596.00 20,596.00 
			  Lowest FTE 15,990.00 14,500.00 14,500.00 
			      
			 Pension Protection Fund (PPF) Highest 200,000.00 200,000.00 200,000.00 
			  Median 40,000.00 40,000.00 40,000.00 
			  Median FTE 40,000.00 40,000.00 40,000.00 
			  Lowest FTE 16,086.00 16,086.00 16,626.00 
			      
			 The Pension Regulator (TPR) Highest 235,000.00 211,500.00 211,500.00 
			  Median 39,228.00 39,228.00 39,228.00 
			  Median FTE 39,228:00 39,228.00 39,228.00 
			  Lowest FTE 16,028.00 16,278.00 16,278.00 
			      
			 Pensions Ombudsman (PO) and Pension Protection Fund Ombudsman (PPFO)(5) Highest 124,236.00 124,236.00 124,236.00 
			  Median 35,000.00 35,000.00 35,000.00 
			  Median FTE 35,000.00 35,000.00 35,000.00 
			  Lowest FTE 17,030.00 17,000.00 17,000.00 
			      
			 Remploy Ltd(6) Highest 150,000.00 150,000.00 n/a 
			  Median 14,436.15 15,015.56 n/a 
		
	
	
		
			  Median FTE 14,677.40 15042.83 n/a 
			  Lowest FTE 10,948.24 11,681.25 n/a 
			 n/a indicates that the 2012-13 salary figures are not yet available. (1) DWP In order to answer within cost constraints, DWP has not included allowances in its response. The figures are relevant as at a point in time—31 March 2011 and 31 March 2012. (2) CMEC The highest salary has been shown in a £5,000 band in line with the annual report and accounts and transparency disclosure. (3) HSE The base salary includes job based allowances for example London weighting and IMT Aberdeen allowance and detached duty allowance. (4) ILF The figures for 2010-11 and 2011-12 are based on salary information as at 31 March. The 2012-13 figures are based on salaries as at today. (5) PO and PPFO This is one combined return as these bodies work very closely together. (6) Remploy Ltd Regular payments in addition to salary have been included. For example, first aid, safety, London weighting, shift pay, leading hand, pensionable allowances, sales commission, weekly-paid shop-floor bonus, (all consolidated and pensionable), and long-term extra-duty allowances and opening/closing allowances.

Pensioners: British Nationals Abroad

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many UK state pensioners living in countries where the pension is frozen claimed a temporary pension uprating to cover the period of their visit to (a) the UK and (b) another non-frozen country in each year since 2003.

Steve Webb: There are insufficient data to provide an estimate.

Poverty: EU Internal Trade

Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate his Department made of the effect that changes in the level of trade between the UK and other EU member states since (a) 1980, (b) 1990, (c) 2000 and (d) 2005 has had on (i) household poverty, (ii) child poverty and (iii) pensioner poverty; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Webb: Statistics covering various groups in low income are published in the annual publication “Households Below Average Income” (ISBN: 978-1-78153-046-7). Latest figures cover the period 2010-11 and are available here:
	http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=hbai
	Statistics on children can be found in chapter 4 and statistics for pensioners can be found in chapter 6.
	No assessment of the impact of the level of trade between the UK and other EU member states on poverty is available.

Retirement

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans his Department has to help working people prepare for retirement.

Steve Webb: Millions of people are not saving enough to meet their aspirations for retirement. To address this, the Government is introducing automatic enrolment into workplace pensions.
	Starting from 2012 all employers beginning with the largest will be required to enrol all workers eligible for automatic enrolment into a qualifying workplace pension scheme and make a minimum contribution. The Department for Work and Pensions has developed communications to provide support and information to individuals to help them understand what automatic enrolment means for them.
	People are normally notified of their state pension entitlement three to four months before it is due. They can, however, get an estimate of their state pension from the Department for Work and Pensions in advance of that by requesting a state pension forecast or state pension statement. The on-line state pension profiler also allows individuals to quickly self-assess the amount of basic state pension they may get, and the earliest date they may get it.
	A major source of information for people is the Pensions and Retirement Planning section on the following website:
	www.Directgov.co.uk
	to which Department for Work and Pensions' campaigns direct people.

Skilled Workers

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his Department's budget was for all skills-related activities in each of the last five years.

Chris Grayling: Skills training for benefit claimants is predominantly funded by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), a partner organisation of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. There is no specific budget for skills-related activities in DWP. Currently, DWP Delivery (Jobcentre Plus) has the flexibility to supplement SFA funding for skills training and associated costs (for example, travel and child care costs) using the Flexible Support Fund.

Social Fund

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much it will cost his Department to run the social fund in each of the next three years.

Steve Webb: This information is still being assessed as part of the wider welfare reform changes that the Department is working through.

Social Fund

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his policy is on the scope local councils will be given to decide how the social fund is spent.

Steve Webb: It will be for local authorities to design and deliver their services in line with our policy of freeing local councils to deliver for the public not central Government, giving them capacity to do what's right for their area. Their local knowledge, broad responsibilities and experience of benefits administration put them in an ideal position to design and deliver the new support in a way that best fits local circumstances and needs and aligns with existing welfare services in a cost-effective manner.
	However, the funding will be accompanied by a settlement letter which will make clear that it is to be used to concentrate resources on those facing greatest difficulty in managing their income, and to enable a more flexible response to unavoidable need.

Social Fund

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when his Department plans to publish data on (a) the spending on crisis loans in 2005-06 and (b) community care grants in 2010-11.

Steve Webb: The crisis loan spend data were published on 6 November 2006 in the 2005-06 Social Fund Accounts, and the community care grant spend data were published on 11 July 2011 in the 2010-11 Social Fund Accounts.
	The published data from these reports are as follows:
	
		
			 £ million 
			  Crisis loans 2005-06 Community care grants 2010-11 
			 Gross expenditure 84.4 141.2 
			 Net expenditure 14.4 141.2 
			 Source: Receipts and Payments Accounts

Social Fund

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much it cost his Department to set up the social fund.

Steve Webb: The introduction of the social fund was one of many wide ranging changes made to social security provision and which was enacted within the Social Security Act 1986.
	It is not possible therefore to specifically identify the net cost to the Department for setting up social fund provision in 1987, that is regulated funeral and maternity payments, and in 1988 discretionary grants, loans and regulated cold weather payments.

Universal Credit

Ben Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions by what means recipients of universal credit will be informed of their receipts.

Chris Grayling: My Department is currently considering the best way to notify claimants of their universal credit payments. Current thinking is that the award notice that a claimant receives following their claim will inform them of which day of the month they will receive subsequent universal credit payments. Details of payments made to them will be available to view through their online account.

Work Capability Assessment

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the audio recording of work capability assessments.

Chris Grayling: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the right hon. Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms) on 19 June 2012, Official Report, column 930W.

EDUCATION

Children's Centres: Birmingham

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much funding he has allocated to Sure Start children's centres in (a) Birmingham, Ladywood constituency and (b) Birmingham City Council area for (i) 2012-13 and (ii) 2013-14; and whether this funding is ring-fenced.

Sarah Teather: Until March 2011, funding for Sure Start Children's Centres was included in the Sure Start Early Years and Childcare Grant (SSEYCG). From April 2011, the Early Intervention Grant replaced a number of previous funding streams including the SSEYCG.
	The Early Intervention Grant is unringfenced and unhypothecated to allow local authorities to make funding decisions according to local needs. Since funding decisions are devolved to local authorities, it is not possible for us to provide a breakdown of funding by constituency. Birmingham City Council's Early Intervention Grant allocation was £64,771,476 in 2012-13. Funding levels for 2013-14 have not yet been announced.
	Under the proposed Local Government Finance Bill 2012, the Early Intervention Grant—along with a number of other central Government grants—will become part of the new local government funding scheme in 2013-14. These changes are set out in a Department for Communities and Local Government paper published on 17 May 2012 entitled “Business rates retention scheme: The central and local shares of business rates—A Statement of Intent”. This reform will change the way local government receives the grant. It does not alter the existing distribution of the grant in 2013-14, nor the fact that it is unringfenced and unhypothecated.
	The Department for Communities and Local Government will be consulting on the technical detail of the new funding arrangements in the summer.

Class Sizes

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will issue guidance to teachers on the importance of a good standard of turnout when teaching.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 25 June 2012
	It is not for the Government to issue guidance to teachers on standards of dress. This is a matter for individual schools to decide for themselves.

First Aid: Training

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  how many (a) teachers and (b) childminders in (i) Swindon and (ii) England are first aid trained;
	(2)  if he will make it his policy to make it compulsory for teachers to be first aid trained.

Nick Gibb: Information on the number of first aid trained teachers is not collected centrally. For child minders it is a condition of registration with Ofsted that they have completed an appropriate paediatric first aid course.
	The Health and Safety at Work Act etc. Act 1974 places responsibilities on the employer for making sure that a school has a health and safety policy which should include arrangements for first aid. For community, voluntary controlled, community special, and maintained nursery schools, the employer is the local authority. For foundation schools, foundation special schools, voluntary aided schools, academies and free schools, the employer is the Governing Body (or academy trust). The proprietor is the employer in independent schools.
	It is the employer's responsibility to make sure that the statutory requirements for provision of first aiders are met, that appropriate training is provided and that correct procedures are followed. The employer must ensure that there are enough trained staff to meet the statutory requirements and assessed needs, allowing for staff on annual/sick leave or off-site.

Primary Education: Admissions

Stephen Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many additional primary school places were created in the academic year 2010-11 through (a) the Free Schools programme and (b) Basic Need funding in (i) Barking and Dagenham, (ii) Milton Keynes, (iii) Bracknell Forest, (iv) Bournemouth, (v) Hounslow, (vi) City of Bristol, (vii) Brent, (viii) Slough, (ix) Merton, (x) Waltham Forest, (xi) Lewisham, (xii) Manchester, (xiii) Wokingham, (xiv) Nottingham, (xv) Hammersmith and Fulham, (xvi) York, (xvii) Ealing, (xviii) Newham, (xix) Wandsworth, (xx) Leeds, (xxi) Southampton, (xxii) Greenwich, (xxiii) Salford, (xxiv) Thurrock and (xxv) Hillingdon local authority area; and how many such places he estimates will be created through each such scheme in each such area in each academic year from 2011-12 to 2015-16.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 21 June 2012
	The Department collects information from each local authority on school capacity in maintained primary and secondary schools through an annual survey. The number of school places relates to the position as at 1 May.
	The survey results show if any additional school places have been created since the previous academic year, but we do not have information from authorities on how the places have been created, either by basic need funding or Free Schools.
	The following table shows the number of available primary school places at May 2010 and at May 2011 in each of the authorities listed above. The first 24 Free Schools did not open until September 2011 so are not included in the number of primary places available in the academic year 2010/11. Over 9,000 new school places will be available when the schools are at capacity. As to Free Schools opening this September, we are still working with groups to open these schools. Statistics on these schools will be available in due course.
	We can only estimate the level of demand for school places, it cannot be determined by pupil forecasts alone as other local factors do have an influence, for example, changes to school capacity and spare school places. The survey data indicate that there will be a need for an additional 260,000 primary places nationally by 2014/15. The Department is currently modelling potential additional basic need beyond this date.
	
		
			 LA Number of primary places 2010(1) Number of primary places 2011(1) Increase/decrease in number of places(1) 
			 Barking and Dagenham 18,107 19,615 1,508 
			 Bournemouth 11,084 11,200 116 
			 Bracknell Forest 9,360 9,434 74 
			 Brent 22,062 23,013 951 
			 Bristol, City of 30,056 29,724 -332 
			 Ealing 25,538 27,015 1,477 
			 Greenwich 20,631 20,883 252 
			 Hammersmith and Fulham 9,157 9,647 490 
			 Hounslow 18,197 18,473 276 
			 Lewisham 21,093 21,015 -78 
			 Manchester 39,178 40,821 1,643 
			 Merton 14,846 15,212 366 
			 Milton Keynes 23,270 24,069 799 
			 Newham 29,093 29,184 91 
			 Nottingham 23,112 23,121 9 
			 Slough 11,909 12,459 550 
			 Southampton 17,217 17,642 425 
			 Waltham Forest 20,046 20,551 505 
			 Wandsworth 16,922 17,271 349 
		
	
	
		
			 Wokingham 13,272 13,335 63 
			 York 13,533 13,559 26 
			 (1 )Includes community, VA, VC, foundation primary schools and academies; excludes special schools. Source: School Capacity Collection.

Recruitment

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what selection criteria his Department used in its recruitment of (a) Alexandra Gowlland, (b) Elena Narozanski and (c) James Frayne.

Tim Loughton: The DFE is committed to ensuring that individuals are appointed through fair and open competition on the basis of merit. Candidates are required to show that they have the appropriate level of professional skills and breadth of experience for the post and are measured against the Professional Skills for Government (PSG).
	PSG is a common set of skill requirements across Government which include behavioural indicators and which set out the skills that staff in the civil service need to do their job well, at all grades, no matter where they work.
	The criteria for the post are advertised in the job specification in addition to details of the assessment being used (if applicable).
	The selection criteria that Alexandra Gowlland and Elena Narozanski were assessed against are as follows:
	Professional skills and experience
	You will need to be able to demonstrate excellent written skills and be able to analyse evidence and get to the bottom of issues quickly.
	You will need strong organisational skills and to be able to manage several conflicting priorities at once. Tight deadlines are part and parcel of this job.
	You will also need to show very strong oral communication skills and you are able to deal with Ministers and senior officials effectively.
	You will need a good understanding of speeches and how they fit into communications plans.
	You will be able to demonstrate how you apply your communications expertise to achieve results and improve practices.
	You will show you are aware of the pros and cons of using different communications tools and understand how they fit together to form coherent communications strategies.
	You will be able to demonstrate how you use your professional and specialist expertise and knowledge to engage, influence and persuade others.
	People and broader skills
	You will need excellent people management skills. You will be a real team player and be able to build highly effective working relationships with Ministers, advisers and senior colleagues.
	You will be able to demonstrate excellent line management skills, with the potential to manage one (or more) junior member(s) of staff.
	You will need to be a strategic and creative thinker, able to come up with fresh ideas and strategically to make the most of speaking opportunities.
	You will need to show you understand multi-disciplinary communications teams and help to shape long-term policy and communication strategies and plans.
	Broader experience
	Ideally, the candidate will have worked as a speechwriter, or senior communications role, previously and have a broad understanding of working with the unique challenges and pressures present in a fast-moving Whitehall communications department.
	Assessment
	Those candidates who are shortlisted for interview were required to undertake a written test (drafting a speech based on public information that was provided) prior to interview. Style and tone were assessed in line with the competencies for the role.
	Additionally at interview candidates were required to deliver a short presentation to the interview panel, the topic of which was provided in their interview letter.
	The selection criteria for James Frayne are as follows:
	Professional skills and experience
	Experience of developing communications strategy at a senior level in a large, complex organisation with many different audience groups and in a media sensitive environment.
	Understanding of the policy objectives and aims of the Department and its key policy directorates.
	Experience of issue management and stakeholder relationship management.
	Experience and proven track record of at least two, preferably more, specialist communications areas, such as media handling, marketing, internal communications, employee engagement, customer insight or digital communications.
	Leadership and core skills
	Command the respect and attention of senior people and work effectively and credibly with Government Ministers and their offices as well as a wide range of officials, advisers and stakeholders.
	A team player, working with colleagues to deliver the Communications Strategy and continuously improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Communications Group.
	Demonstrable success in leading the development of communications strategy. Able to think strategically and communicate strategies effectively and persuasively.
	The ability to lead and motivate senior communication specialists who can deliver for their individual customers within the directorates as well as addressing the broader needs of the external customers of the department.
	The ability to think, plan and operate both in response to immediate needs, and from a strategic perspective, identifying and working towards longer-term outcomes.
	A proven problem solver with a reputation for delivering solutions to seemingly intractable problems.
	Ability to formulate and drive forward change while relentlessly focusing on improving service delivery and reducing cost.
	Experience of successful operational, project and programme, financial and people management.
	Broader experience
	Ideally the candidate will have worked as a professional communicator previously at senior management level and have a broad understanding of working with the unique challenges and pressures present in a fast-moving Whitehall communications department.
	Assessment
	Each candidate met with an occupational psychologist, experienced in assessing people for SCS posts, who provided the panel with a report on each candidate.
	Each candidate was asked to prepare for their interview a five minute presentation entitled ‘As Director of Communications for DFE, what do you think are likely to be the key opportunities, risks and challenges of the role and how would you deal with them’.
	The Head of the Government Communications profession was a panel member to test each candidate's technical ability.

Schools: Defibrillators

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make it his policy to require schools to have defibrillators on their premises and to ensure that staff are trained to use them.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 21 June 2012
	There is currently no requirement on schools to have a defibrillator on school premises. It remains a matter for individual school determination as to whether they choose to have a defibrillator and to arrange for suitable training of the school work force in its use.

Sixth Form Education

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he plans to publish success rates for each school sixth form in England; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The Young People's Learning Agency published headline (provider level) success rates for each school sixth form in England for 2009/10 following a data-checking exercise.
	The Education Funding Agency is currently carrying out a data-checking exercise with schools and academies to review the quality of success rate data for the 2010/11 academic year. Once this has been completed the EFA will assess the validity of the data. This is due to take place in autumn 2012. If the data are of sufficient quality, I will make appropriate plans to publish them.

Sixth Form Education: Finance

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what recent steps he has taken to ensure fair funding of 16 to 19 education provision between schools and sixth form colleges by 2015.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 21 June 2012
	Historically there has been a funding disparity between schools and sixth form colleges and other further education establishments, with schools having been funded on a higher basic funding rate. We committed in the White Paper, “The Importance of Teaching”, published in November 2010, to end the disparity in post-16 funding so that, by 2015, schools and colleges will be funded at the same level as one another. In 2011/12 schools were moved onto the same base rate of funding as colleges. We introduced transitional protection for four years to give institutions sufficient time to adjust to the new base rate of funding and to the other funding changes announced in the December 2010 “16-19 Funding Statement”. Transitional protection will be removed completely in 2015/16.

Sixth Form Education: GCE A Level

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many (a) school sixth forms and (b) sixth form colleges do not offer A Levels in (i) English language, (ii) English literature, (iii) French, (iv) German, (v) Spanish, (vi) geography, (vii) history, (viii) mathematics, (ix) further mathematics, (x) physics, (xi) chemistry, (xii) biology and (xiii) music.

Nick Gibb: We are not able to provide information on A level subjects offered by schools and sixth form colleges as it is not held by the Department. The information provided is based on A level examination entries in selected subjects by each institution type. The selected subjects are taken from the data used to compile the key stage 5 performance tables.
	
		
			 Number of institutions published in KS5 performance tables with no GCE A level examination entries in selected subjects by type of institution. Year: 2010/11. Coverage: England 
			  Number of institutions by type with no entries in subject 
			 Subject School sixth form Sixth form college 
			 Biology 359 3 
			 Chemistry 420 3 
			 English Language 1,324 10 
			 English Language and Literature 1,481 23 
			 English Literature 395 4 
			 French 835 6 
			 Geography 550 6 
			 German 1,267 18 
			 History 355 3 
			 Mathematics 305 3 
			 Mathematics (Further) 967 6 
			 Music 1,092 17 
			 Physics 493 3 
			 Spanish 1,314 12 
			 Notes: 1. School sixth forms have been identified as the following institution types. There are 2,029 schools with sixth forms: Academy Sponsored academy City technology college Community school Community special school Foundation school Foundation special school Voluntary aided school Voluntary controlled school 2. Sixth form colleges have been identified as the following institution types. There are 96 sixth form colleges: Sixth form college Ministry of Defence funded college (i.e. Welbeck Sixth Form Defence College) Source: Key Stage 5 performance tables

Students: Statistics

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when his Department expects to achieve its objective to have consistent data available for the judgement of performance of post-16 students by Ofsted and others so that young people, parents and the community are given consistent information that is easy for them to understand and make use of.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 25 June 2012
	We remain committed to introducing comparable measures of performance for all 16-19 providers of education. We are considering what these measures should be in order to ensure that comparisons are made on the right basis by Ofsted, parents and students.

CABINET OFFICE

Charities

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many new charities were established (a) nationally and (b) in Swindon in the last year.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Charity Commission. I have asked the Commission's chief executive to reply.
	Letter from Sam Younger CBE, dated 27 June 2012
	I have been asked to reply to your Written Parliamentary Question on how many new charities were established (a) nationally and (b) in Swindon in the last year [114592].
	The Charity Commission holds the Register of Charities for England and Wales. Charities that have been established and which have an annual income of £5,000 or above are required to register with us.
	6,401 charities were registered in England and Wales in the last 12 months. 11 charities were registered in Swindon in the last 12 months.

Regulation

Gordon Banks: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what regulations his Department introduced between 1 February and 31 May 2012; and at what cost to the public purse.

Francis Maude: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 18 June 2012, Official Report, column 764W.

HEALTH

Ambulance Services

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken to ensure that ambulance trusts not meeting their response targets are brought up to the national minimum standard.

Simon Burns: Ambulance trust performance for response times is published monthly and monitored through regular discussions between the Department and strategic health authorities and against the NHS performance framework.
	For 2011-12, all ambulance trusts met the response time standards. The Category A8 performance measure of 75%, for the proportion of Category A calls resulting in an emergency response arriving within eight minutes was 76.1%. The Category Al9 performance measure of 95%, for the proportion of calls to receive an ambulance vehicle capable of transporting the patient within 19 minutes of the request for transport being made was 96.8%.

Buildings

Daniel Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on works and refurbishment to offices allocated to Ministers in his Department's buildings in each year since 1997-98.

Simon Burns: The following was spent on works and refurbishment to offices allocated to Ministers in the Department:
	
		
			  £ 
			 2011-12 12,746.25 
			 2010-11 5,382.22 
			 2009-10 20,008.41 
			 2008-09 36,322.87 
			 2007-08 10,271.54 
		
	
	Detailed data are is not readily available for periods earlier than 2007.

Community Nurses

Sarah Newton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 16 May 2012, Official Report, column 144W, on cancer: drugs, which professional organisations his Department is working with to scope a renewed model of community nursing; when they will publish details of the programme of a renewed model of community nursing; and whether he plans to hold a formal consultation on his proposals for such a model.

Anne Milton: The Department is working with community nurses and professional organisations as part of a development programme to scope a renewed model for community nursing, focusing on district nursing services. The professional organisations involved include the Queens Nursing Institute, Royal College of Nursing, Macmillan Nursing, Hospice UK, various practitioners, primary care trusts and service users.
	We will consult with the profession, key stakeholders and service users as part of the development programme. The aim is for the initial scoping to be published early 2013.

Dental Services

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of dentists in England have exceeded their NHS quota for work in each of the last two years.

Simon Burns: This information is not held centrally. NHS Dental contracts are commissioned and managed by primary care trusts.

Home Visits

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many families have been visited by a (a) family nurse partnership and (b) family intervention project in (i) the last three years and (ii) the latest period for which figures are available.

Anne Milton: Since its inception in 2007 up until the end of March 2012, 9,207 families have been enrolled on the Family Nurse Partnership programme in England.
	Family nurses visit families from early in pregnancy until their infant reaches two years of age and in 2011-12, 6,651 families were visited by a family nurse. In 2010-11 family nurses visited 5,608 families and in 2009-10, 3,854 families.
	Family intervention projects are a matter for the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Meals On Wheels

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people receive meals delivered to their homes and arranged through the local authority.

Paul Burstow: Data on the number of adults aged 18 and over in receipt of meals as a community-based service, funded wholly or partly by councils with adult social services responsibilities (CASSRs), are collected and published by the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care each year as part of the annual Social Services Activity Report. The most recent report, for the financial year 2010-11, was published on 28 March 2012. It is available on the Information Centre website at:
	www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/social-care/adult-social-care-information
	We are informed by the Information Centre that, during 2010-11, 81,460 adults were in receipt of meals as a community-based service funded wholly or partly by CASSRs.

Procurement

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many contracts issued by his Department were awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises in 2011-12; what proportion that figure represents of all contracts let; and what the monetary value was of such contracts.

Simon Burns: The Department provides monthly reports about procurement expenditure with small and. medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the Cabinet Office. For 2011-12, the cumulative value of this expenditure, excluding Connecting for Health, with SMEs was £81.9 million, which represents 18.3%, as a proportion of the equivalent expenditure on goods and services with third parties of £446.2 million.
	The number and total value of contracts issued by the Department relating to this spend information is not available. To provide that information would incur a disproportionate cost.
	To provide the same information on spend, the number and total value of contracts with SMEs by Connecting for Health would incur a disproportionate cost due to the nature of their procurement system.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust

David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what recent assessment he has made of the financial performance of South London Healthcare NHS Trust;
	(2)  what recent representations he has received regarding the future structure of South London Healthcare NHS Trust following the planned departure of its chief executive.

Simon Burns: The latest financial position of national health service trusts is provided in the NHS chief executive's annual report “The Year 2011/12: including the Quarter, Quarter 4 2011/12”, which was published on 21 June 2012. A copy has been placed in the Library and is available on the Department's website at:
	www.dh.gov.uk/health/files/2012/06/the-year-and-quarter-4-210612-gw-17802-PDF-2.33MB.pdf
	The financial performance of South London Healthcare NHS Trust is being monitored and reviewed by NHS London, the trust's strategic health authority, and the Department.
	The Secretary of State for Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr Lansley), has received representations from local hon. Members in relation to the future structure of South London Healthcare NHS Trust. On Monday 25 June, the Secretary of State wrote to South London Healthcare NHS Trust and local NHS partners to inform them that he is considering using the Trust Special Administrator's regime to support development of a long-term solution for the trust. No final decisions have been taken.

Thalidomide

Amber Rudd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how many people affected by thalidomide were alive in (a) the UK, (b) East Sussex and (c) Hastings and Rye constituency in the latest period for which figures are available;
	(2)  what the average age was of people affected by thalidomide in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Paul Burstow: We understand that the Thalidomide Trust supports 435 people in the United Kingdom whose health has been affected by Thalidomide. This breaks down per country as follows:
	
		
			 UK beneficiaries by country 
			 Country Number 
			 England 327 
			 Northern Ireland 18 
			 Scotland 59 
			 Wales 31 
		
	
	We do not have data on the number of those affected by Thalidomide at county or constituency level.
	As Thalidomide was licensed for use in the UK in April 1958 and withdrawn from the UK market on 2 December 1961, the age-range of anyone affected would be between 51 and 54.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Adult Education

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much funding his Department allocated to adult skills in the last year.

John Hayes: ‘Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth' published in November 2010 set out that the overall investment in adult Further Education (FE) and skills would be £3.9 billion in the 2011-12 financial year. Within this overall investment, £3.7 billion would be invested in delivery of FE and skills provision for post-19 learners, supporting capacity for over 3 million training places in the 2011/12 academic year.
	It also highlighted that Government funding would be focussed where its impact is maximised, towards the young, the low skilled and the unemployed.

Adult Education

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people are enrolled in adult skills sessions (a) nationally and (b) in Swindon.

John Hayes: In England, 3,163,200 adult learners (aged 19 or over) participated in Further Education and Skills during the 2010/11 academic year (the most recent year for which full data is available).
	In Swindon, 12,750 adult learners participated in Further Education and Skills during the 2010/11 academic year. This figure is based on the home postcode of the learner.
	These figures are derived from the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). The figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
	Further information relating to participation in Further Education and Skills broken down by geography is published in the Supplementary Tables of the Department's Post-16 Education Statistical First Release (SFR). These can be found at the following link:
	http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/statisticalfirstrelease/sfr_supplementary_tables/further_education_skills/

Bank Cards: Fees and Charges

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when he expects to publish the consultation on implementing Article 19 of the Consumer Rights Directive on excessive card surcharges.

Norman Lamb: holding answer 25 June 2012
	The Government shares consumers' concerns about the high level of payment surcharges imposed by some businesses. On 23 December 2011 we announced our intention to consult on implementing the payment surcharges provision of the Consumer Rights Directive ahead of the June 2014 deadline. We intend to issue a full 12-week consultation in the summer to seek views on the timing of implementation and other details on how the provision should be applied. Responses to the consultation will inform our decision on timing and our guidance to businesses.

Banks

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will consider the recommendation by the British Chambers of Commerce to create a state-backed business bank to improve access to finance and to invest more in trade promotion.

Mark Prisk: The Government already has strong support in place to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access debt and equity finance, which are available through their existing banks and other finance providers. This includes the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme and the National Loan Guarantee scheme.
	The scale of the financial crisis—with banks repairing balance sheets under the spectre of the Euro crisis—means that it is right to explore all options to ensure businesses continue to have access to finance. This is why the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the new Funding for Lending scheme, as well as an extension of the National Loan Guarantee scheme to make businesses with a turnover of up to £250 million eligible.
	The Government is also committed to trade promotion. The UK has an award-winning trade promotion body in UK Trade and Investment (UKTI). UKTI offers a range of tailored services aimed at helping companies new to exporting and those seeking to break into new markets. UKTI currently supports around 25,000 companies each year. Additional funding made available in the last autumn statement, along with new partnerships with business intermediaries such as banks, legal firms and accountants, will help to double the number of companies supported over the next three years.
	In addition, UK Export Finance has recently expanded its product range to provide further help for UK exporters, especially SMEs. These products address risk of non-payment, contract bonds, working capital and foreign exchange risk.

Companies

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will request the Financial Reporting Council to publish an annual report on the operation of the UK Stewardship Code.

Norman Lamb: The Financial Reporting Council has already undertaken to produce an annual report on the operation of the UK Stewardship Code.

Executives: Pay

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the update of the Financial Reporting Council's Corporate Governance Code to codify current best practice, what constitutes a significant minority of shareholders voting against a pay resolution in an advisory vote.

Norman Lamb: The Financial Reporting Council will consult on this proposal once the Government's legislative reforms to directors' remuneration has been finalised.

Executives: Pay

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to his proposals on executive pay, what the criteria will be for a change in company remuneration policy; and whether a company's board or shareholders will be the arbiter of whether a change in remuneration policy has occurred that would trigger a binding vote.

Norman Lamb: Companies will only be able to make remuneration payments which are consistent with the last directors' remuneration policy to have been approved by shareholders. Therefore any revisions to policy will need to be put to a binding vote of shareholders before they can form part of the legally recognised and approved remuneration policy.

Executives: Pay

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking to ensure that companies do not draft director pay policies broadly to avoid annual binding votes on directors' pay as part of his proposals on executive pay.

Norman Lamb: The Government has published revised regulations which determine what must be included in the directors' remuneration report. For the first time, companies will be required to set out for every element of pay that a director could be entitled to how it supports the achievement of strategic objectives of the company, the maximum value that could be awarded, and performance measures that will be applied.
	The binding vote on policy gives shareholders new powers to challenge companies that are not providing sufficient detail in their policy.
	Companies will not be able to make payments outside the scope of the approved policy. It is therefore in companies' interests to be clear about their pay policy so that they can ensure they have proper shareholder approval for future payments.

Executives: Pay

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to his oral statement of 20 June 2012, Official Report, column 867, on executive pay, for what reasons he has proposed a 50 per cent threshold for shareholders' advisory votes.

Norman Lamb: Earlier this year a small number of investors suggested that the voting threshold for remuneration resolutions should be increased, but when the Government consulted on this most businesses and investors were not in favour. In particular they were concerned about the potentially disruptive effect of a large minority shareholder.
	We have listened to these concerns and all remuneration resolutions will require a simple majority to pass. Recent shareholder activism has shown that shareholders can muster a 50% vote against where they have major concerns.
	The Government also welcomes the Confederation of British Industries' call for companies to respond formally when a significant number of shareholders vote against a pay resolution—even where the vote is passed—and for this to be enshrined in the Corporate Governance Code.

Executives: Pay

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what information companies will be required to publish on consultation with employees over director pay policy following implementation of his proposals on executive pay.

Norman Lamb: The Government has published, for comment, draft regulations which determine what companies must report on directors' pay. These draft regulations include the proposal that the report includes a statement on whether and if so how a company sought employee views on the remuneration policy.

Higher Education

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how his Department communicates the information that a course is to be designated for higher education purposes to the (a) Student Loans Company, (b) Quality Assurance Agency and (c) Higher Education Funding Council for England.

David Willetts: The information requested is as follows.
	(a) Course designation decisions are communicated to providers by the Student Loans Company (SLC). The SLC maintains a list of designated courses on its website:
	http://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/policy-information/designated-courses.aspx
	(b) and (c) The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) are able to access the information through the SLC website as above.

Higher Education

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether due diligence checks for higher education course designation take into account the applicant's parent company.

David Willetts: The due diligence checks currently undertaken for higher education course designation take account of a range of factors including consideration of the applicant's parent company.
	As set out in the Government Response to the White Paper consultation we will be reviewing the existing student support course designation system for alternative providers to include more robust and transparent requirements on quality assurance, financial sustainability and management and governance.

Higher Education: Admissions

Elizabeth Truss: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  how many and what proportion of pupils in the (a) poorest and (b) richest one per cent of areas entered (i) any university, (ii) a Russell Group university and (iii) Oxbridge in the last year for which figures are available;
	(2)  how many and what proportion of pupils in the (a) poorest and (b) richest 10 per cent of areas entered (i) any university, (ii) a Russell Group university and (iii) Oxbridge in the last year for which figures are available.

David Willetts: The information requested is not available centrally. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) publication “Widening Participation in Higher Education”, August 2011 shows proportions of maintained school pupils who entered higher education by local authority area.
	http://www.bis.gov.uk/analysis/statistics/higher-education/official-statistics-releases/widening-participation-in-higher-education/analysis-of-progression-rates-for-young-people-in-england-by-free-school-meal-receipt
	The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) publication “Trends in young participation in higher education” of January 2010 gives information on participation for areas classified by participation rates. This shows, for cohorts from the late 2000s, typically fewer than one in five young people from the most disadvantaged 20% of areas enter higher education, compared to more than one in two from the most advantaged 20% of areas.
	http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2010/201003/

Manufacturing Industries: Drugs

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people are employed in the pharmaceutical sector in (a) the UK, (b) the East Midlands, (c) Nottinghamshire and (d) Ashfield constituency.

Mark Prisk: The manufacture of pharmaceutical products and preparations employed the following numbers of people in the UK, East Midlands and Nottinghamshire between 2008 and 2010. Employment data estimates for the Ashfield constituency and for Nottinghamshire in 2008 cannot be provided as this would infringe of the legal confidentiality rights of companies operating there.
	
		
			 Employment in the pharmaceuticals manufacturing industry 2008-10 
			  Nottinghamshire East Midlands United Kingdom 
			 2008 — 1,600 44,000 
			 2009 500 1,900 46,000 
			 2010 1,000 2,300 45,000 
			 Source: NOMIS, Annual Business Survey; both ONS

Manufacturing Industries: Drugs

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the value of the pharmaceutical sector is to the economy of (a) the UK, (b) the East Midlands, (c) Nottinghamshire and (d) Ashfield constituency.

Mark Prisk: The manufacture of pharmaceutical products and preparations contributed the following amounts of Gross Value Added to the UK economy overall and the East Midlands economy between 2008 and 2010. These data are not collected at the county and constituency level and regional data are not yet available for 2010.
	
		
			 Gross value added of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry 
			 £ million 
			  East Midlands United Kingdom 
			 2008 95 9,631 
			 2009 143 11,712 
			 2010 — 11,065 
			 Source: Regional Annual Business Survey 2009 and UK National Accounts; both ONS

Medicine: Education

Stephen McPartland: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of students who entered medical schools in the UK were educated in a UK state school in the latest period for which figures are available; what proportion of such students were (a) male and (b) female; what the breakdown of ethnicity was of such students; and if he will make a statement.

David Willetts: Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that in academic year 2010-11, 50% of UK domiciled students who entered full-time first degree courses in medicine and dentistry subjects at UK higher education institutions had applied from a state school. The denominator to calculate this figure includes students whose previous institution before HE was a state school, independent school, further education institution or higher education institution. It excludes students whose previous institution attended is unknown.
	The following tables contain information on gender and ethnicity.
	
		
			 Proportions of UK domiciled entrants to full-time first degree medicine and dentistry courses at UK HEIs from state schools, by gender and ethnicity 
			  Percentage 
			 Gender  
			 Female 56 
			 Male 44 
			   
			 Ethnic group  
			 White 71 
			 Black 3 
			 Asian 21 
			 Mixed 4 
			 Other ethnic background 2 
			 Notes: 1. Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population. 2. Covers students in their first year of study. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)

Overseas Trade: Central Africa

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the primary (a) imported and (b) exported goods and services are between the UK and (i) the Democratic Republic of Congo and (ii) the Central African Republic.

Mark Prisk: In 2011, the UK exported goods to the value of £23.7 million to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRoC), and imported goods to the value of £3.6 million.
	In 2011, the UK exported goods to the value of £0.7 million to the Central African Republic (CAR) and imported goods to the value of £0.1 million.
	The top five goods traded between the UK and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRoC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) are listed in the following table, using the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) at 2 digit detail.
	No services trade data are available for 2011.
	In 2010, the UK exported services to the value of £9 million to the Democratic Republic of Congo and imported services to the value of £8 million. No product breakdown is available. In 2010 Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reported total goods exports of £15 million to the Democratic Republic of Congo and total goods imports of £4 million.
	UK exports and imports of services from the Central African Republic were less than £0.5 million in 2010. In 2010 HMRC reported total goods exports of £0.7 million to the Central African Republic and total goods imports of £0.1 million.
	It should be noted that HMRC goods and Office for National Statistics (ONS) services trade data are not reported on a wholly consistent basis.
	
		
			 UK exports to DRoC 2011 
			 SITC-2 £ sterling Percentage 
			 Total 23,655,600 — 
			    
			 78—Road vehicles (including air cushion vehicles) 9,462,100 40.0 
			 59—Chemical materials and products n.e.s. 2,348,600 9.9 
			 11—Beverages 1,903.500 8.0 
			 72—Machinery specialized for particular industries 1,750,100 7.4 
			 74—General industrial machinery and equipment and machine parts n.e.s. 1,360,700 5.8 
		
	
	
		
			 UK Imports from DRoC 2011 
			 SITC-2 £ sterling Percentage 
			 Total 3,572,100 — 
			    
			 91—Postal packages not classified according to kind 1,263,300 35.4 
			 28—Metalliferous ores and metal scrap 1,128,000 31.6 
			 24—Cork and wood 672,000 18.8 
			 68—Non-ferrous metals 135,900 3.8 
			 87—Professional, scientific and controlling instruments and apparatus n.e.s. 135,100 3.8 
		
	
	
		
			 UK exports to CAR 2011 
			 SITC-2 £ sterling Percentage 
			 Total 690,300 — 
			    
			 11—Beverages 125,100 18.1 
			 87—Professional, scientific and controlling instruments and apparatus n.e.s. 108,000 15.7 
			 53—Dyeing, tanning and colouring materials 61,300 8.9 
			 78—Road vehicles (including air cushion vehicles) 55,500 8.0 
			 76—Telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment 55,100 8.0 
		
	
	
		
			 UK imports from CAR 2011 
			 SITC-2 £ sterling Percentage 
			 Total 126,300 — 
			    
			 72—Machinery specialized for particular industries 117,900 93.3 
		
	
	
		
			 89—Miscellaneous manufactured articles n.e.s. 8,500 6.7 
			    
			 Notes: 1. Only two product groups were imported from CAR in 2011 2. Data are rounded to the nearest 100. Source: HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics (Goods), ONS Balance of Payments (Services)

Overseas Trade: Syria

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the primary (a) imported and (b) exported goods and services are between the UK and Syria.

Mark Prisk: In 2011, the UK exported goods to the value of £85.3 million to Syria, and imported goods to the value of £20.9 million.
	The top five goods traded between the UK and Syria are listed in the following table, using the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) at 2 digit detail.
	No services trade data are available for 2011. In 2010 the UK exported services to the value of £50 million to Syria and imported services to the value of £30 million from Syria. No product breakdown is available. In 2010 Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reported total goods exports of £133 million to Syria and total goods imports of £26 million from Syria. It should be noted that HMRC goods and Office for National Statistics (ONS) services trade data are not reported on a wholly consistent basis.
	
		
			 UK exports to Syria 2011 
			 SITC-2 £ sterling Percentage 
			 Total 85,310,100 — 
			    
			 71—Power generating machinery and equipment 12,977,400 15.2 
			 54—Medicinal and pharmaceutical products 7,221,300 8.5 
			 69—Manufactures of metal n.e.s. 7,047,700 8.3 
			 74—General industrial machinery and equipment and machine parts n.e.s. 6,890,300 8.1 
			 72—Machinery specialized for particular industries 5,922,700 6.9 
		
	
	
		
			 UK imports from Syria 2011 
			 SITC-2 £ sterling Percentage 
			 Total 20,915,700 — 
			    
			 71—Power generating machinery and equipment 5,996,000 28.7 
			 26—Textile fibres not manufactured and their waste etc 5,285,400 25.3 
			 84—Articles of apparel and clothing accessories 4,505,400 21.5 
			 65—Textile yarn, fabrics, made up articles etc 819,000 3.9 
			 79—Other transport equipment 724,300 3.5 
			 Note: Data are rounded to nearest 100 Source: HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics (Goods), ONS Balance of Payments (Services)

Regulation

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what regulations his Department introduced between 1 February and 31 May 2012; and at what cost to the public purse.

Mark Prisk: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has introduced 13 regulations between 1 February and 31 May 2012. The information on the cost to the public purse is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Vocational Training

Tristram Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how the Skills Funding Agency monitors the effectiveness of (a) sub-contractors and (b) lead contractors delivering (i) the adult skills budget, (ii) 16-18 apprenticeships and (iii) adult community learning programmes; and what its key outcome performance indicators are for each.

John Hayes: The agency manages all providers it contracts with using a national performance management framework. This framework is based on a single account management approach, which partners each college or provider with one account manager in the agency. This approach encompasses all funding provided to them, such as the adult skills budget, 16-18 apprenticeships and adult community learning programmes.
	The account manager works closely with the college or provider throughout the delivery of the learning or training, monitoring performance against its contracts with the agency and working with the contractor to ensure that our quality standards are met and ensure that provision is effective:
	http://skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/providers/quality/
	Performance is measured against the terms and conditions of these contracts and meeting the contract in funding terms. Providers are encouraged to ensure their offer meets the needs of local employers and learners.
	The assessment of quality remains the key performance measure within the freedoms and flexibilities of providers to respond to what employers and learners demand.
	The agency uses qualification success rate of learners participating in programmes and this is also provided to Ofsted to underpin their inspection work. The agency uses a minimum level of performance policy to intervene where success rates fall below a national standard.
	This approach is used in conjunction with wider provider performance management protocols which ensure public funding is maximised and spent effectively.
	For all provision funded within the single adult skills budget delivered by private training providers (including 16-18 and 19+ apprenticeships), performance management reviews are conducted at quarterly points throughout the contract year. Adjustments to contracts are made where performance against cash profiles for the period in question is outside of our published tolerance levels. Where there is a pattern of under-delivery, the agency reduces the maximum contract values to reflect some or all of the value of the under-delivery.
	For colleges, simplified performance management and payment arrangements are in place. Colleges are not subject to in-year performance management. Their funding is assessed following the end of each academic year. Colleges are expected to deliver their agency funding allocation in line with their assessment of community, stakeholder and employer needs, Government ambitions and funding requirements. This includes a continued emphasis on delivering high quality provision.
	The current Adult Safeguarded Learning programme (which will be renamed as Adult Community Learning in the 2012/13 academic year), is used to support the design and delivery of a wide range of learning opportunities in every geographical area. The adult and community learning programme is intended to widen participation and, in particular, to focus some of the activity specifically on deprived areas and disadvantaged groups.
	A key effectiveness measure for this programme is the numbers of learners engaged. The numbers of learners are important as Government policy in this area is to maintain the numbers funded through this programme. The agency's aim is to reach as many learners from areas of disadvantage as possible. Agency relationship managers review with contractors:
	planned numbers of learners;
	allocation and funding;
	actual numbers of learners engaged;
	cost per learner for each programme.
	The Skills Funding Agency is committed to a high quality offer and over time performance and quality arrangements are covered in performance management discussions, and reference is also made to any relevant inspection data and learner management information.

Vocational Training

Tristram Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment he has made of the management fees charged to sub-contractors by the lead contractors of Skills Funding Agency programmes.

John Hayes: The chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency has a statutory duty to make best use of the agency's resources when securing the provision of education and training. Therefore there is an expectation that the funding provided is used for the benefit of the learner and spent on their learning programme or provision. The amount of funding retained by a lead provider for programmes and provision delivered in whole, or part, by a subcontractor must represent good value for money and reflect the actual costs incurred by each party in the delivery of that provision.
	The agency published the fees and costs associated with subcontracting taken from the Declaration of Subcontractor forms submitted by lead providers on our website on 22 June 2012. This is designed to enhance transparency; however, the level of these fees varies considerably as the nature of respective services provided by lead providers and their subcontractors also varies a great deal.
	The agency will shortly be publishing its intention to require independent assessment of the nature and reasonableness of subcontracting fees for each such arrangement and will work with the FE sector on the detail in the coming weeks.

Vocational Training

Tristram Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how the Skills Funding Agency assesses the suitability of those sub-contractors involved in delivering apprenticeships which are not required to complete the Due Diligence Assurance Gateway.

John Hayes: The primary responsibility for assessing the suitability for sub-contractors rests with the lead provider with whom the agency contracts. As of last year, the agency also required all sub-contractors with an aggregate contract value of £500,000 and over to go through its gateway assurance process. This is the same process the agency uses to assess the providers it funds directly. This requirement has now been extended to all sub-contractors and they have until December 2012 to provide the necessary assurance.
	However, the agency's gateway assurance process does not remove any responsibility from the lead provider in relation to assurances it needs to seek in relation to entering sub-contracting arrangements. Rather, it supports those arrangements and also enables a public list of sub-contractors that have passed a lead provider and the agency's checks to be used by lead providers and the agency in making procurement judgments.

TRANSPORT

Railways

Stephen Mosley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps her Department is taking to reduce the carbon intensity of the railways.

Theresa Villiers: Rail electrification reduces reliance on carbon-intensive fossil fuels. The Government are funding an ambitious electrification programme including the TransPennine route between York, Leeds and Manchester and various schemes in the north-west of England and the Great Western route.
	My Department also includes environmental objectives in rail franchises which require train operators to develop plans to measure and reduce environmental impacts, including carbon emissions.

Longbridge Station

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Garston and Halewood of 14 June 2012, Official Report, column 533W, on railway stations, what account she takes of the role of Longbridge station in the regeneration of the local area when considering the proposals put forward by London Midland.

Theresa Villiers: The criteria to be used in arbitrating London Midland's proposal to amend ticket office opening hours are those set out in section 6-18 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (TSA). The TSA covers the various arrangements between train operators relating to the carriage of passengers and the retailing of tickets. This includes requirements on protecting passenger access to the purchase of rail products following any change to ticket office opening hours. The TSA is owned and maintained by the Association of Train Operating Companies, and is available from their website at
	www.atoc.org

Private Hire Vehicles

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2012, Official Report, column 1016W, on private hire vehicles: Greater London, what assessment she has made of the share of the taxi and private hire market held by (a) Addison Lee and (b) other companies.

Norman Baker: Under devolution, transport in London is the responsibility of the Mayor and Transport for London. As such, the Department for Transport has made no assessment of the share of the taxi and private hire market of Addison Lee and other companies. It is open to the Law Commission to take issues relating to market share into account as part of their consideration of the law around taxis and private hire vehicles, should they think this relevant.

Railways

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what preparations she has made for the next rail High Level Output Specification.

Justine Greening: I know my hon. Friend will have welcomed our recent commitment to improve line speed on the Calder Valley route as part of our commitment to the Northern Hub. Extensive preparations have been made for the next rail High Level Output Specification which will be published by July 2012, building on the £18 billion of investment we are making in this spending review period.

Railways

Alun Michael: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps she is taking to make rail companies more accountable to the travelling public.

Theresa Villiers: As set out in the Government's Command Paper in March, future passenger train operators will be held to account through binding service quality commitments on key service aspects such as stations.
	The National Passenger Survey and the work of Passenger Focus will inform decisions on the requirements we will place in future franchises on passenger satisfaction.
	Network Rail has announced proposals to strengthen the ability of public members to hold the company to account, and to appoint a public interest director to its board.

Rolling Stock: Procurement

Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent progress she has made on the Intercity Express Programme rolling stock contract.

Theresa Villiers: Negotiations with Agility Trains on the Intercity Express Programme's two main contractual documents are now substantially complete. We expect to reach financial close soon.

Infrastructure

Adrian Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent progress she has made on transport infrastructure projects announced in the autumn statement.

Justine Greening: The Government are not just fixing the disgraceful legacy of debt left to us by the Labour party but also building for our country's success in future—and that means investing in transport. At the autumn statement we announced £2.5 billion more in transport investment, building on the £30 billion set out in the spending review. An update on the progress made on the priority infrastructure investments identified in the 2011 national infrastructure plan was published alongside the Budget in March.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Developing Countries: Water

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent steps the Government have taken to improve access to water in the developing world.

Stephen O'Brien: At the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting in Washington on 20 April 2012, the Secretary of State for International Development, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), announced that the UK will double its results for the number of people we will reach with WaSH programmes. The UK has committed to reach at least 60 million people by 2015. Details of how we will deliver the scaled-up ambition are under development.
	The Department for International Development is currently implementing nine major WaSH bilateral programmes in Africa (Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Sierra Leone) and four in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam). We also contribute to the results achieved by multilateral organisations including the European Commission, the World Bank, UNICEF and the African Development Bank.

Developing Countries: Water

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps the Government are taking to support the work of WaterAid in the developing world.

Stephen O'Brien: WaterAid is an important partner for the Department for International Development (DFID). WaterAid and other NGOs will be essential partners in helping us to scale up our results in WaSH, as announced on 20 April 2012.
	Details of the funding provided by DFID to WaterAid for the period 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011 are provided in Statistics for International Development (SID) 2011. Table 19 of SID provides information on WaterAid. This information is available on the DFID website:
	http://www.dfid.gov.uk/About-us/How-we-measure-progress/Aid-Statistics/Statistics-on-International-Development-2011/About-Statistics-on-International-Development-2011-/

Niger

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment he has made of the humanitarian situation in Niger; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen O'Brien: The United Nations currently estimates that the food crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa has left over 18 million people at risk of food shortage over the next few months. Around 6.4 million of these people are in Niger.
	Having visited the region earlier this month, I can confirm that the scale of the needs is great, but UK assistance is achieving results.
	In response to the unfolding crisis, the UK provided two contributions of £5 million each in January and March 2012.
	I am pleased to confirm that we have announced over the past two weeks a further package of assistance. Worth an additional £15.4 million, this more than doubles UK assistance to the region in 2012, to a total of £25.4 million.
	Through this assistance, British aid this year will support 1.6 million people at risk of hunger across Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso, to achieve the following results:
	improved nutrition for 185,000 children and women (including therapeutic treatment to save the lives of over 110,000 severely malnourished children under five years old);
	food and cash vouchers for over 250,000 men, women and children;
	livelihoods support to over 980,000 people through:
	(a) the provision of seeds and tools for families to enable them to feed themselves for the next year and;
	(b) animal feed and vaccinations to keep farmers' livestock alive.
	These direct funds are in addition to £27 million of UK contributions also being provided in 2012 to the Sahel region through multilateral agencies such as the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
	My officials and I will continue to monitor the situation closely, and liaise with our opposite numbers in other Governments to urge that other countries also take their fair share of the response.

Procurement

Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what account his Department takes of the Government's transparency agenda in formulating its procurement policy.

Stephen O'Brien: DFID is committed to the Government's transparency agenda and the procurement reform objectives being led by the Government Procurement Service within the Cabinet Office. At an international level, DFID led discussions on transparency in aid effectiveness at the High Level Forum in Busan (South Korea) in November 2011. DFID takes account of the transparency agenda when formulating its procurement policy.
	DFID demonstrated its commitment to the transparency agenda with the early adoption of the Government “Contracts Finder” website to publish tender and contract documentation and the modification of contract terms and conditions to enable the publication of information. In April 2012 DFID also began publishing its Procurement Pipeline to provide improved transparency to enable businesses to compete more effectively for contracts. The UK was the first donor agency to publish data using the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard which covers all aspects of DFID business, including procurement.
	DFID also ensures the monthly publication of electronic payments, including procurement card transactions in excess of £500, to the external website. DFID is making good progress with staff training and the ongoing development of key systems to ensure that it is fully supporting all aspects of the transparency agenda.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Iran

David Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 
	(1)  whether the Government plan to raise with other states the imprisonment and torture of Houtan Kian in Iran for legally defending Sakineh Ashtiani;
	(2)  whether he has made any representations to the Iranian authorities on the imprisonment and torture of Houtan Kian in Iran for legally defending Sakineh Ashtiani; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt: We remain concerned about the fate of Mr Javad Houtan Kian, who is guilty of nothing more than defending his client Sakineh Ashtiani and has no case to answer. Iran should overturn his sentence and release him immediately. We are further concerned by the mistreatment he is reported to have faced. This is something the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), addressed in his speech to the “Imprisoned in Iran” event hosted by The Times newspaper in September 2011. We raised Mr Kian's case with the Iranian authorities before the closure of our respective embassies late last year, and continue to call frequently on Iran to meet its international human rights obligations. We will continue work with our international partners to ensure that Mr Kian's case is not forgotten. The UK and its EU partners have sanctioned a number of individuals responsible for human rights abuses in Iran, including the prosecutor in Ashtiani's case.

Israel

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Government of Israel on their Unlawful Combatants Law.

Alistair Burt: While we have not had any direct discussion with the Israeli Government on their Unlawful Combatants Law. Our officials in Tel Aviv have repeatedly lobbied Israel to either charge or release Palestinian detainees held in administrative detention, so they have discussed with the Israelis the use of the law.

Official Cars

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many vehicles are owned by his Department, its agencies and non-departmental bodies in the UK.

David Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), British Council, Great Britain and China Centre (GBCC), Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission (MACC) and Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) do not own any vehicles in the UK.
	The FCO uses the Government Car and Despatch Agency for its transport requirements in the UK.
	FCO Services, a trading fund of the FCO, currently owns and operates 43 vehicles within its UK fleet.
	Wilton Park, an academically independent and non-profit making executive agency of the FCO, owns one vehicle.

Pakistan

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Government of Pakistan following the death of Fukraz Begum.

Alistair Burt: During the recent visit by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), to Pakistan, he met with Prime Minister Gilani on 12 June. During this meeting he did not raise any specific consular cases though he did raise wider concerns over access to British detainees.
	The British high commission to Pakistan was made aware of Fukraz Begum's case by her family on 23 April 2012. Consular staff are providing appropriate consular assistance to Mrs Begum's family. Victim Support has been notified and consular staff continue to be in contact with the local authorities on the police investigation.

Palestinians

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent steps he has taken regarding the Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud Sarsak.

Alistair Burt: We monitored closely Mr Mahmoud Sarsak's hunger strike and were pleased to receive reports that, following a review of his case by the Israeli Supreme Court, Mr Sarsak ended his hunger strike on 18 June as part of a deal that will lead to his release on 10 July.
	We have longstanding concerns about the situation and treatment of Palestinians held in Israeli detention, including children. In this regard, we have followed closely the hunger strike by many Palestinian detainees. We welcomed the agreement reached on 14 May to end the mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners. We particularly welcomed Israel's agreement to limit the use of administrative detention and solitary confinement and reinstate family visits for detainees. These important issues, particularly Israel's extensive use of administrative detention, are ones which we have repeatedly raised with the Israeli ambassador and the Israeli Government, including in May with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Vice Prime Minister and National Security Adviser. We will follow closely the implementation of the agreement and its impact on the situation of Palestinian detainees.